Ultimate Jackpot
by simpleswede
Summary: My first Ultimate fan-fic and hopefully not the last. Takes place pre-Ultimatum. Rated M for some adult/silly material. Its basically Mary Jane getting superpowers of her own.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I'll always loved Ultimate Spider-man, so it was only a matter of time before I'd write one like this. There's a lot of Mary Jane-gets-her-own-power-stories but none of the ultimate franchise I noticed. Hopefully it will be more ultimate stories in the future.**

Doctor Otto Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus (or Doc Ock for short), was for now pleased with his situation. Sure, he was behind bars, but that wasen't really a bad thing for the moment. The evil scientist had made deal with the american goverment, so in exchange for him giving them all the information they needed about his former boss Norman Osborn, he got a lot of privileges that the other prisoners at the Triskeleon didn't. The goverment saw his brain as to important to be rotting away in a hole.

He had a quite comfortable prison cell, with his own TV and a lot of books and papers to read, and the food they gave him was enjoyable. Allthough, they didn't give any metal, so he could only eat with a spork. Doc Ock's power was not only that he could control the four metal tentacles that used to be attached to his body, he could also control metal itself. Therefore his entire cell was made out of plastic.

Late, one evening, he was reading a book written by Stephen Hawkings under his reading light, when his cell door opened and two armed SHEILD guards approached him.

"Octavius. You got a visitor."

The criminal genius adjusted the shades that covered his eyes and looked at his watch.

"Always as punctual."

The guards handcuffed him (plastic handcuffs) and led him down a hallway, guns ready to fire just in case. He was then led into a room that looked very much like a interrogation room. In the middle there was a table with two chairs, and in one chair there was someone already sitting. He looked terrified, and but the look of his clothes he could just as well sell drugs on the street.

The imprisoned doctor sat down in front of him as the guards left the room.

"Are... are you sure no one can hear us, Doc?" the nervous stranger on the otherside of the table said. "I mean, this is the SHIELD and all."

"I am absolutly sure." said the doctor. "Now, I trust that the _products_ are finished."

"Ready and delivered, Doc. Did it three nights ago. No one knows a thing about it."

"Good, make sure you continue with it for as long as the _product_ last. We have to make sure it reach our target."

The evil man with the bowlcut chuckled, but the man he talked to didn't get any less nervous.

"Just... just one question, Doc. Why do you do this again?"

"Why? Well, you could say that I am doing it for the sake of science, but in truth, I'm just trying to destroy Spider-man's life a little more.

* * *

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Mary Jane Watson's hand hit her alarm clock like a falling hammer.

"Man, I hate that thing."

The sixteen year old redheaded girl sat up on her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom. After doing her buisness and taking her morning shower, she walked down the stairs to get herself breakfast. Her mother was already getting dressed for work.

"Good morning, sweetie. Did you get a good night sleep?"

"Not really." the young girl answered while she opened the refrigerator door. "Mom, we're out of milk. And of O-J too."

"I'm gonna go to the supermarket after work, but you'll have to be satisfied with water for now."

MJ frowned, eating her toast with just water wasen't her picture of a good breakfast, but that what was she had to go with for today.

"Well, I have to go now. See you at dinner, sweetheart." the adult woman said as she kissed her daughter's head and walked out the door.

"Bye, Mom."

MJ swallowed down a large gulp of water and bread down her throat, she wasen't really in a good mood today. She had long night of bad dreams, but, she thought, it was just dreams and dreams had that tendency to fade away. She gulped down the last water in her glass and started to get ready for school.

She just about to open the outer door when she suddenly stopped and stood still for a moment. A strange, rumbling feeling had suddenly started in her stomach.

"Ouch. That's odd. What is... OW! WHAT THE HELL!?"

The rumbling feeling had suddenly exploded into a major stomach pain which made her fall down to her knees. And just as quick as it came, it disappeared. When she looked up from the floor, she noticed how her right hand was shaking.

She stood up, holding her shaking arm with her other hand, breathing heavily. After almost two minute she'd calmed down enough for her to stop shaking.

"Calm down, MJ." she told herself. "You're allright. You're allright..."

But deep within her there was some concern. Last time he had shaked like that was when she had the post-traumatic shock from the whole clone-abduction. Maybe it was coming back to her, she thought. But why would it come now when its such a long time since she came over it, and it didn't explain the stomach pain. She didn't had time to wonder about it before she had to rush out to catch the school bus.

* * *

Peter Parker stepped on the bus a few streets after his girlfriend. He gazed over the bus and saw her, the love of his life, sitting almost in the back, saving a seat for him as usually.

"Hi, Tiger." the red headed girl said as her boyfriend approached her.

"Hi, MJ." the brown haired boy greeted her back.

They gave each other a kiss as he sat down beside her.

"Are you okay, MJ? You look a little pale, and awfully tired."

"Hm? Oh, I'm fine. I just... I just didn't get any sleep tonight. I'll be fine, sweetie."

She didn't like to lie to the man she loved so much, but she did not wanted him to worrie about her, at least not until she knew it was something serious. She looked out of the bus window and noticed how it started to rain, which made her sign.

_"Great. Just what I needed."_

The young girl didn't get any happier when she looked at her papers and remembered what class they had before lunch.

Mr Hershach was proberly the most boring teacher in the tri state-area, it was no surprise that half his class was drowsy halfway through the history lesson, even the brainy and eager to learn student Mr Parker. But this time the most sleepy student was the otherwise so alert young Miss Watson. Mary Jane have had her chin rested against her hand the whole hour, and about fifteen minutes before the class was over, she finally lost the battle against drowsiness, closed her eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

_Raging claws slashed through the air and blood stained the floor. Spider-man staggered below her, clasping the bleeding wounds on his chest with his hand._

_"MJ, stop! You most stop it!"_

_She pounced at him like an vicious animal, trying to claw that mask of his face._

_"MJ, no!!!"_

_"YOU!!!"_

"Miss Watson."

_"YOU!!! YOU!!!"_

"Miss Watson!"

MJ woke up with a shock. She fund herself back in class, everyone else in the room looking at her.

"Miss Watson, sleep belongs in bed at home, not in class." Mr Hershach lectured her. Luckily, the bell ringed just as she was gonna try to explain herself, and evrybody cleared that room.

At her locker, MJ felt even worse then earlier. And it did not go unnoticed by her boyfriend.

"MJ, sweetie, you don't look allright. Are you sure you're okay?"

"No, not really, Peter. I think I'm coming down with something."

"Is that way you almost fell out of your chair? Usually it's me who falls asleep in the middle of class."

She nodded. He was of course refering to the lack of proper sleep he had from his job swinging around in tights.

"Okay. Listen, you should call in sick. You go home and rest, allright? I'll handle the teachers for you, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks for being so sweet to me, Peter."

"How could I not to. Take care now."

The young superhero kissed her goodbye and speeded of for next class, while she packed all her things and headed out for the long walk home. Unfortunely, the rain had only got worse during the morning, and when she finelly got home she was soaking wet. Not helping at all.

After changing into a tank top she took a look of herself in the bathroom mirror.

"Damn..."

She almost didn't recogniced the girl looking back, with the soaking wet hair, pale skin, sweaty and with drowsy eyes. She was just to head for the medicine cabet when she fell to the floor in pain.

"AAAAGH!!!"

The stomach pain came and left just as quick as last this morning. Afterward both of her hands were shaking. She didn't know how long it took before she finally calmed down and was able to stand up.

"Damn it. What's wrong with me?"

She splashed her face with cold water and stood there for several minutes, just breathing. Then she opened the medicine cabet and swallowed a handfull of flu pills. Not that she thought that they might work for this whatever she had.

She felt awfully tired, so she decided to head to her bed. She snuck beneath the sheets and it didn't took long before she returned to the land of dreams.

* * *

_"NOOOOO!!! YOU'R FAULT!!!"_

_Knock Knock_

MJ opened her eyes. It was the knocking on her door that awaken her and from the otherside of it she heard her mother's voice.

"MJ, honey, are you in there? Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." MJ answered drowsy.

Mary Jane's mother entered her daughters room.

"Oh my. Are you okay? You look like you're sick."

"I proberly am. I don't feel so good."

Mrs Watson walked over and put her hand on her daughters forehead. "My gosh, you're burning up. Have you taking any medicine?"

"Yes, I took some flu pills. But I'm mostly tired, I just wan't to go back to sleep."

"Okay, honey. I'll bring you some water and vitamines, then I'll leave you to get some rest."

"Thanks."

MJ's mother got her a big glass of water which she gulped down immediatly and then falled asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

She slept for the whole day and the whole night, thought she couldn't notice that when sleeping (duh). What she on the other hand did was aware of, was the terrifying dreams she had, these dreams would she not forget in long time.

* * *

_"YOU!!! YOU'R FAULT!!!"_

_"No, MJ! You have to see! You have to see!"_

_"NOOO!!! GYAAAARGH!!!"_


	2. Chapter 2

_She crawled over the ground on all four, like an animal, until she came up to a puddle of water. She gazed down in it and saw a face staring back, but it wasn't her face._

_"Mary Jane."_

_She turned around, seeing Spider-man standing there behind her._

_"Mary Jane. There's something you need to see."_

_"NYAAARGH!"_

_She jumped at him, slamming him into a wall, and when he lied there motionless she lifted him up with one hand. With the other hand she grasped his mask and pulled it of, it wasn't her boyfriends face she saw. Instead of brown hair and brown eyes she saw a blur of long red hair and two emerald green eyes looking back at her._

_"You and me, MJ." her face said with her boyfriends voice. "You and me now."_

_

* * *

_

MJ woke up from this very strange dream she just had. As she sat up in bed, she felt a lot better then she did yesterday, but on the other hand she find that she had a small ache in her entire body, like some kind of growing pain or like she had just did a long tough workout.

"What was that about?" she wondered as she rubbed her head, slightly confused over her dream. "I would never try to hurt Peter. Why is this happening?"

She then noticed the condition of her bed, all the sheets was in a real mess, like she had tossed and turned like crazy in her sleep, and she saw something strange about the cover.

"Are those... claw-marks?"

This was just getting stranger and stranger for her. She adjusted her hair, which was in a mess, and stood up. She got a little dizzy, presumably from under-nourishment, but when all the blood came back to her head she noticed that her top was to tight.

"What the... It fit fine yesterday."

She turned on the light and stood in front of her full body mirror, and was she surprised of what she saw.

"Oh my god!"

She quickly threw off her top and stared at at her reflection.

"Oh my god. My boobs are huge!"

Indeed, MJ's breast had grown pretty much over night. It wasn't like she was unequipped in that department before, she never had any complains at least, but now... She wasn't quite in the porn-star league, but they looked enormous compared to yesterday. Before she was a big B-cup or maybe a small C, god know what size she was now.

She poked her new assets and cupped them in her hands. They felt heavy.

"God, there soft. Peter's head is gonna explode. And what will Mom say, I'll have to buy a whole lot of new clothes, how am I gonna afford that."

After she had calmed down she noticed that it was not only her breasts that had changed over night. Her skin, which had changed back from pale white to healthy pink, seem much more flawless now. Not a single blackhead, pimple or what so ever could be seen and the very surface of her skin seemed much smoother.

Her stomach was smoother too. She was always slim and well fit, keeping herself in good shape, but know she could see a slight hint of a six pack. She definitivly didn't had the stomach an female body builder, more like an swimmer or a female wrestler, but her arms and shoulder was just as slim as they used to.

She turned around and took a good look at her butt in the mirror. _"Damn!" _she thought. Her derriere was much rounder and firmer now, almost stepping into the ghetto booty class, allthought it was not fat at all. MJ looked at her new curves for a long time, and she liked what she saw.

"From cute and goodlooking to a complete sexbomb over one night. Talk about hitting puberty. Again."

At least she wasn't short of self-confidence.

She tried on several poses in front of the mirror, trying to get a good look of her new body, moving her hands over her skin and stretched her legs and arms in different directions. Then she flexed her arms, and to her surprise some muscles poped up on her biceps. Not much, but more then what was there before.

"Where did these come from? Duh, from the same place as THESE obviously." she said, once again focusing on her bustline. "Wonder how strong I am."

She looked over at her bed. It had taken two strong growned-up men to carry it up the stairs, a memory which gave her a urge to test something out. She walked over the the shortside of the bed and put her hands on the underside of it, so she had a good grip, and pulled up.

The bed flew a good three, four foot up in the air, flipped over and landed on the floor with the mattress down. And of course it did so with a large bang.

MJ put both of her hands over her mouth, totaly shocked, she hadn't even pulled much strenght in that flip. Still she had flinged that bed like it was made of air. One thought came up in her head, could it be so that she was just as strong as her very own superhero-boyfriend?

Knock Knock

"MJ? Is everything okay?"

"DON'T COME IN!"

Of pure reflex MJ covered her still topless chest with her arms when hearing her mother's voice. She rushed over to the door, VERY fast, and pushed at her door, preventing her mom from entering the room and see her in only her panties.

"Um... I'm not dressed, Mom!" the teen yelled while locking the door.

"What was that loud noice? Did it come from your room?"

"Yeah, uh... I fell. Yeah, I fell out of bed. That's most be what you heard."

"Oh, are you okay, sweetie? How do you feel, any change?"

MJ looked back at her reflection in the mirror and cupped her breasts again.

"Change? Yep, BIG change."

"Do you think you'll be able to go to school today?

"Um, no. I'm pretty tired, I still don't feel a hundred."

"Okay. I am going of to work now, there's pancakes in the fridge. Oh, and Peter came by after school yesterday, he wanted to see you but you were still sleeping. He left your homework on the table in the living room, and he said he's going to call you later, okay. Bye sweetie."

"Bye, Mom."

_"God. What am I going to tell Peter? I hope he likes his girls big upstairs"_ MJ thought as she tried to find some clothes. Apart from the slight ache in her entire body, MJ felt fine, but she did not wan't to go to school like this. At least not before she had got a grip of everything. Today it was Friday, so she wouldn't need to deal with school until Monday, but she was sure that when she finally showed up she would have to deal with a lot of talking behind her back. Talks like '_Done some work over the weekend?"_

She struggled for a full hour with the impossible task to squeeze herself into one of her bras.

"Come on! Get in there, damn you!"

After trying on every bra in her closet, she understood that the fight was hopeless, and decided to simply not wear one. No way she would sneak into her mom's closet and borrow one of hers. She then put on a large, baggy, pink sweater. It covered enough so that people wouldn't notice her new forms unless they got really close. She then put on a pair of jeans (that felt pretty tight too over her new lower cheeks) and headed downstairs.

* * *

Apart from the aching in MJ's limbs and body, her stomach also growled like crazy, not surprisingly. Your body don't transform like that over night without burning a lot of carbs. So she took out all the pancakes from the fridge and put them on the table. Then she headed back into the fridge and brought out orange juice, milk, toast, two hardboiled eggs, a small yoghurt, an apple, a banana, a carrot, a two days old pizza slice and topped all this with a frosted chocolate cupcake.

After having gulped down everything in front of her, MJ leaned back in her chair and gave out a small burp. _"Whoops. Glad no one heard that one. I can't belive I ate all that stuff!"_ She remembered how Peter's eating habits had grossed her out, because of his high super-metabolism, but she would never pick on him about that again.

Now when her belly was stuffed, Mary Jane had a chance to think about her situation.

"Okay, reality check." she thought out loud. "People just don't get superpowers over night. Well... Peter did, but he got bitten by a super-spider, and I don't recall being bitten by a supermodel. How did this happen?"

The young girl tried to remember any out of the ordinary she'd done the last days. But she couldn't think of something. Of course no one would call swinging between buildings ordinary, but for her it was part of a normal day. After straining her braincells for some time, she decided to deal with it later and focus her attention on more normal stuff. Like her homework.

She work on her homeworks until noon, when her phone ringed.

"Hello?"

"Hi, MJ. It's me Peter." the voice on the other end of the line said.

"Hey, Tiger."

"Hey. How are you feeling?"

"Better at least."

"Well, that's good to hear. But you know what my Uncle Ben used to say? 'It is good that you are better, but isen't it better if you were good?'"

MJ laughed at her boyfriends funnyness. "Yeah, thats true. So what are you doing?"

"Oh I was just eating my lunch, then I thought about you. It's lonely here without you."

"Really? But I'm sure all the other girls at school don't mind keeping you company. When the cat is gone, you know."

"Yeah sure. Soon as you left the building I had to shoo away all the ladies with a dirty stick. Listen, I would love meet up with you this afternoon, but I'll have to go to the Bugle. So I'll see tomorrow. I'll have to hang up now, but I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay, I'll see you then. Love you."

"Love you too. Bye" and by that they both hunged up the phone.

MJ wanted to tell Peter about her dilemma, but she didn't want to do it over the phone. Before she told him, she needed more meat on her bone, so she slammed her school book closed and picked up her best outdoor boots.

"I think it's time to go for a testdrive."

* * *

**AN: I know, I know, I'm eight years old. But don't come and say that scene in the movie didn't had a sexual innuendo. Don't be surprised if more of this comes up later on.**


	3. Chapter 3

MJ started with jogging down the street, but she quickly picked up the pace and started to move faster and faster, soon she was running through Queens at a speed that would put a olympic 100 metres runner to shame. She surprised herself how fast she was when she felt the wind blowing in her hair, the people she passed just taking her for a pink blur. She stopped only when she realised that she had ran all the way from her house in Forest Hills to the Queensboro bridge without breaking a sweat, and it had only taken her a few minutes.

_"Sure beats taking the bus. And it's so much cheaper."_

She then thought it was a good idea to move up to higher grounds so she snuck into an alley and looked for a fire ladder, she found one that was eight feet up on the wall, so she jumped up and grabbed the lowest step. She could then with easy effort lift herself up to reach the other steps. She then climbed the ladder up to the rooftop.

She was now looking down at the street from the roof of an six storey building. It hadn't looked that high from down there, though.

There was a about 20 feet gap between each building, MJ was sure that she seen Peter jump that distance, now the question was if she could. Her new-found strenght and speed gave her an pretty good confidence that she could, but there was also a small voice in the back of her head called reason. And it told her that this might not be such a good idea.

The young girl took a deep breath, and decided to ignore that little voice.

She took off like a gun shot, and started running from one end of the building to the other. Her foot reached edge of the roof and she pulled all the strenght she had in her legs. She flew up in the air like a spring, not only in lenght but in height too.

_"Oh my god, it's lust like I'm flying! This is amazing! I never felt so aaaaaaAAAH OVERSHOT!!!"_

MJ had pulled a little to much in that jump. She jumped to far and to high, and when she took ground she tripped and tumbled the last feets, fell of the roof, hurled towards the ground and got tangled up in a clothes line, hanging three store over the ground.

She hanged on to the line for a minute, trying to catch her breath and figure out how she was going to get down without killing herself.

"Ouch... Well, this is a nice pickle you put youreself in, MJ." she told herself. "How am I gonna get out of this?"

As an answer to her question, the clothes line snapped. "Eeeek!"

She plunged downwards and landed on a car ceiling with a bang, then she slowly tipped of the car and hit the dust. She slowly stood up on her feets and staggered around for a short moment.

"I gotta go easy when I park the car..." she mumbled in her dizzyness.

She shook her head and started rub her now tender back and shoulder while looking up at buildings she had fell in between.

_"Wow. The fact that I'm relatively unharmed after that, shows a lot. And I must have jumped at least forty feet, thats something."_

She then saw the car she had crashed on top of, and another idea formed in the teenagers head. She walked up to the cars side and grabbed the underside of it, she then lifted the entire car up over her head.

"Oh... my... god... I knew I was strong, but not that I was THAT strong." She held the car up until she started to get tired. "Allright, I don't want to get a hernia my first day."

She dropped the car and it landed on all tires with a big thud, the red head then leaned her back against it, thinking about her situation. First, she thought, she had felt worse then she ever had, then she hit a second puberty with including superpowers. The real question was; Why? And how? MJ had no idea how, but she could think of why. She would be lying to herself if she said that she hadn't wished for this. And could all those strange dreams have something to do with it? Maybe her subconscious tried to tell her something.

Truth is that she always worried about Peter, even if she usually didn't say it out loud, and she always wanted to know if there was a way for her to make sure he was safe. And now there was. With her own superpowers she could help him and cover his back so to speak. She liked the idea.

* * *

"HELP!!!"

The scream woke MJ up from her thoughts. She ran out from the alley and tried to locate the sound.

"NO PLEASE! PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS! SOMEBODY HELP!"

"Are you stupid, you dum broad! Give me the bag or I'll fucking hurt you!"

It seemed the screams where coming from further down the street. MJ ran in the direction, wondering how she could hear it all the way from here, and over the traffic.

_"Don't tell me my hearing got better too? And I can't belive I'm running towards something dangerous."_

Soon she was able to locate the source in a back alley where a mugger tried to grab the purse from a crying woman who held on to it by her life.

"No no please! I got a kid, please!"

"Let go, bitch! I mean it!"

"Hey! You know when you steal one womans purse you offend everyone of them! Women that is..." _"Did I just pulled a joke? Not a good one at least."_

The mugger turned his head and looked at MJ, who had pulled her pink shirts hood over her head.

"Whata... Listen, bitch. Take your Hello Kitty outfit somewhere else or you'll get really hurt."

"Make me!" MJ wasen't sure where that came from.

The mugger throwed the woman to the ground and stepped closer to the foolish stranger in pink. Now MJ noticed how tall he really was.

"I'm only saying this once more, you stupid tramp. Get out of here or you're get in real trouble. This does not concern you."

He reached out his arm and tried to pushed MJ back, but to his surprise she didn't move an inch. It was like trying to push a brick wall, wich only seemed to provoke him further. He was about to jump over Mary Jane and hit her, but she reacted faster. Acting purely on reflex, she pushed him with all her strenght and he flew back against the wall, hit it hard and landed in a pile of garbage bags. He made a weak groan as he passed into the land of unconsciousness. MJ walked up to the crying woman and helped her up on her feets.

"Are you okey, ma'am?"

"I-I-I think so. How did you...?"

"It dosen't matter. You should call the police or something before he wakes up. I, um, I have to go."

She turned around and left the alley with quich speed, leaving the woman there wondering what just happend, MJ had a hard time beliving it herself.

"I can't belive I just did that!" she said when she finally stopped. "Jesus, what a rush! Guess this makes me a genuine superhero."

Deep inside her head that little voice talked tried to tell her what a stupid move she just did, she could have got really hurt, but another voice told her that she just had saved someones life. And that second voice was so much stronger for the moment then the first one. She thought that this must be how Peter felt every day.

"All I'm missing now is a suit. I can't go out and fight robbers looking like a flamingo."

* * *

When Mary Jane got home her mother had already come home from work.

"There you are, honey. Where have you been?"

"Um, just out for a walk. You know, I needed to get some fresh air."

MJ's mother walked closer to her and rubbed her daughter cheek with her thumb.

"I am glad to see that you're feeling better, but look at you, you're filthy. What happen'd?"

"It... a car drove by and splashed dirt all over me. I think I'm gonna go get a shower."

"Mm-hm. You do that, I'll start with dinner. Hope you're hungry."

"You bet."

After Mary Jane had taken her shower and put on her lilac bathrobe, she dug deep into her closet and pulled out her old sewing machine. This baby had repaired many holes in the butt of her boyfriends old suit before. And now it was her turn. She then picked up her set of marker pencils and a notebook with blank pages.

"Allright. Let's get on with it."


	4. Chapter 4

_"My life sucks."_

Mary Jane did not like her working place at all, but again who does? She had to go up at the crack of dawn on a saturday morning, take the smelly bus to the mall, put on a humiliating and itching outfit (this time without any good-fitting underwear) and serve obnoxious people greasy food at the _'Big Easy Cajun'_. Smiling while she's doing it, on top of it all. As it turned out, her sense of smell had evolved too, making her place next to food that she wouldn't eat even if she was starving even more unbearable. If there wasn't for the money (a quarter over minimum) she would had quit a long time ago.

She didn't understood why her stupid boss even kept the place open so early at weekends, since the only ones whos where at the mall at that time were old people, and they didn't even eat this crap.

It was about an hour after the lunch rush and MJ had starting to get into what she called zombie state.

"Hi, welcome to Big Easy Cajun. Can I take your order?"

"Is that how girls greet their boyfriends these days? I must have missed that memo."

MJ shook herself out of her trance and noticed it actually was Peter standing in front of her. She felt her cheeks turn red.

"Oh. Peter... I'm sorry, I didn't notice it was you. What are you doing here?"

"What, I can't visit my girlfriend at her work? Aren't you usually done for lunch by this time?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. I'm stepping off in ten minutes." she remember when she took a look at her watch. "Why don't you wait for me at the fountain? My boss will get a total outburst if he saw me talking to you while working."

* * *

Said and done, within fifteen minutes the two teenagers was sitting on a bench in front of a big fountain, massaging each others throats with their tongues. Now, with a heighten sense of taste, MJ thought that Pete tasted even better.

"This was a good idea." the female part of their French-kiss-monster said when they finally broke apart for air.

"Yeah, those who talk about indecent behavior in public are very lonely people." the boy part of them said.

"Aren't you afraid I still got the bug, Tiger?"

"Hey, I got bitten by my fair share of bugs already. Besides, it is a little too late to point that out AFTER we already exchanged saliva."

The two kids laughed and had a good time for a good while, then Peter felt he needed something off his chest.

"Um, MJ, don't take this the wrong way but... You feel a little different when I hold you against me. And you look a little... bigger in some places. Is everything allright?"

MJ's face started to turn red again. She hadn't changed her working outfit for her regular clothes, and this one was pretty tight over her chest. The fact that she wasn't wearing a bra did not help either. At least now she could figure out why she served so unusually many teenage boys today.

"Uh..." she said as she cleared her throat. "I've just put on some weight this week. It's all going to my funny places, you know. And... and I think this shirt has shrinked too. Yeah that's it. You know how we girls are when it comes to weight, I've been like a yo-yo this last six months. No more twinkies for me. And I gotta change detergent! Yeah."

Peter looked at his girlfriend with the big eyes he got from the shock of the sudden wave of words. "Okay... I think your problem is way to much sugar. You're coming off a little to hype there, Red."

"Sorry, I was just taken. You know you never say stuff like that to a lady."

"Yeah I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude or mean or anything."

"It's okay. Now, where were we?"

She quickly made him forget about it using her amazing skill of tonsil hockey.

* * *

After her lunch brake MJ had to get back to work, so she said good bye to Peter and returned to slavery. During which she kept tugging her shirt to make sure it wasn't on too tight, and when she finally were done for the day she decided it was time to get some good fitting clothes.

After changing into her normal outfit, she headed for a lingerie shop she know of. She got inside and started looking for something that might suit her. She picked up a few bras of different sizes to try out and stepped into the fitting room. She took off her shirt and inspected herself in the mirror, amused of what she saw. _"All-right, let's see if any of these fits."_

"HOLY CRAP!"

The yell from the fitting room made the reception clerk get up and knock on the door.

"Miss? Is everything okay in there?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. No problem." MJ told her from the other side of the door.

The clerk lady shrug her shoulders and went back to her buisness while Mary Jane were staring at her reflaction and at the label on the black brassiere she just put on.

_"A D-cup?! No way! And it's still a little tight... Man, never thought I was gonna end up like this when I was younger and wished for more to fill up my shirt with."_

After trying on several bras of similar size until she had found two that she thought felt comfortable, one black and one white, and she choosed to grab along a new sports bra too. She then picked up some matching panties to go with them. Then her eyes fell upon a dark red two piece bikini which looked like her size, after seeing how good it looked on her she thought:

_"Well, spring break is coming up in less then two weeks, why not? I can't wait to show it off."_

When MJ put all her picked out underwear on the desk to be payed for, the receptionist couldn't believe her eyes. How could such a young and petite girl like this need undergarment of this size?

MJ handed over her money and got her clothes tucked down in a bag, and now when she had her civilian clothing, it was time to fix herself a superhero suit.

She walked down to a fabrics store where she was sure she could find what she looked for. Out of her back pocket she pulled out a drawing she had made last night. It was the design she had liked the most and she could definitely see herself in it. The design had started out looking like the one of Spider-man, but afterwards she had changed a lot of it.

The suit was slightly jumpsuit looking, mostly green with white on the chest, stomach and inner side of the legs. The pants were shaped like bell bottoms, giving the suit somewhat of a disco-era style. It included green gloves since she didn't want to leave fingerprints and she added some golden bracelets to it. The suit lacked fabrics at the neck and upper chest, showing of some cleavage. She painted the mask golden to match the bracelets, she thought it would be complicated to do surtains stuff with a full covering mask (like kissing). So she decided to leave the mouth, nose and chin open. The mask had golden goggles, the same shape as the eyes on the Spidey-mask. First she had thought about adding a cape on the costume, but then she realized how corny it would look.

Inside the store she found all the colorful spandex she needed, she bought a lot of it so she could make several spare suits. And when she walked her way home, carrying all this stuff, her eyes catch the glimpse of a pair of shoes in a window. A pair of brown platform boots, not too high (she didn't wanna come off taller then her boyfriend), with the heels slightly higher then the sole.

She bought the boots, and a can of green spray paint for her last money, and then took the bus home. Luckely her mom wasn't home so she didn't need to explain her strange shopping spree. She started to work at once. She spent hours on the sewing machine and with the scissor and needle, sewing together and adjusting it to fit her measurements. When her mother came home and wondered what she was doing, MJ said it was a school project.

It was nearly 11 pm when she was done. She took the costume, put it on, strapped on the boots (that she now had colored green) and picked up the mask. When she tried to put the mask on, she noticed what a hard job it was to get it to fit with all her hair in the way. So she cut off some fabrics in the back of the head and neck so her long red hair could hang free over her shoulders. She then strapped on the gold bracelets (not real gold of course), and when she was fully dressed she took a look in the mirror.

_"Wow. This could work."_

She stood in front of the mirror and tried on several poses, just like she did a few nights ago when she first noticed her change. She put her hands on her butt and jutted out her chest.

_"You are S-E-X-Y, tigress. Look out New York, there's a new superheroine in town. HEY! Look at that, put on a blond wig and I look like Power Girl."_

Peter had his share of Power Girl comic books, and MJ knew why, but she didn't mind.

But there was something that bugged her for the moment. The costume missed something, she couldn't figure out what, but it was something. Something small that would add the finish touch. MJ started to take of the costume and change into her nightgown, heading for bed.

_"I got to get my a superhero-name too."_ she thought. _"Spider-girl? No, it doesn't fit the costume. Spider-woman? That's taken. I should properly pick something that's not spider related. The Amazing Cricket-girl? The Spectacular Disco-pants? Nah..."_

She kept thinking about the name issue until she had fallen asleep. That issue, however, would solve itself during night.

* * *

_"You mean, you would... I mean, you didn't have an issue or..."_

_"Yeah, but that was before."_

_"Before?"_

_"Yeah. I have a pretty strict 'No superhero' rule, so..."_

_"What?"_

_"Peter, I'm joking."_

_The two of them moved closer to eachother._

_"There's no rule?"_

_"No."_

_"There's no rule against me...?"_

_"No."_

_"You're not freaked out?"_

_"Nope."_

_"Really?"_

_Their lips moved closer and closer._

_"Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot."_

Just as their lips was about to meet, Mary Jane woke up. A brilliant idea had just come to her in her dreams.

"That's it!"

She looked out of the window, it was still dark, she could see the skyline of NY in the horizon. Then she took out the costume which she had tugged in under her bed.

"You, my friend, just got yourself a name."

* * *

**AN: Music listening to when writing this: The Lady in Red and The diary of Jane. Coincident much?**


	5. Chapter 5

In a empty warehouse, late the night between saturday and sunday, you expect to only find cockroaches and rats. But tonight this warehouse was inhabitat by a man who could pass for any one of those.

This man looked like a stereotype junkie, and that was what he was. One thing that made him stick out, however, was the fact that he had one blue eye and one brown eye.

The man was just about to breathe in a line of highly dangerous illegal drugs when a sound behind him made him rush up on his feets.

"Who's... who's there!?!"

"Relax. It is just me." a female voice spoke out. A attractive blond woman with a deep suntan walked out from the shadows.

"Oh... D-doctor Hollister. Y-you startled me."

The heterochromian (look it up) drug-addict tripped backwards as he tried to hide his stash.

"I was just... I just..."

"Spare me your excuses, I don't care. Tell me, Mr Gonzales, have you talked to our good doctor yet?"

"Y-yes. A f-few days ago, a-actually."

The woman now looked at the drog dope with angry eyes. "And why wasn't I informed until now?"

It was a strange sight to see this potentially dangerous, drug-addict from the streets cower back from this woman who looked so much more harmless then him.

"I-I-I... I had stuff that... I was j-just..."

"Never mind. What did you tell him?"

"What you wanted me to tell him. That I did just as he told me."

"Good, we don't want him to suspect anything. Then I will return to my work. Don't call me, I'll call you."

She then left him. Little did she know that instead of lying to Doctor Octopus, Gonzales had lied to her instead. He had made sure to fulfil the work for both his two new bosses, so that he could get his hands on two easy rewards. The effects of his actions would he find of much later.

* * *

Mary Jane woke up early that morning. The nervousness had her go to the bathroom twice before she decided to finally pack the suit in her backpack and head out to try it out. She told her mom that she was going out to do homework with Peter, but instead she took the bus across the bridge to Manhattan.

MJ wondered how she going to find any crime to stop, but she remembered that Peter once said that he never finds troubles, it finds him. Maybe it was the same for her.

She snuck into an alley, took out the costume and changed into it. Then she climbed up to the rofftops.

_"Yikes. Gotta adjust the suit when I come home, this thing is giving me a wedgie. Okay, I'm up, so what should I do now?"_

She stood on the rooftop looking out over city, not really sure what to do. But she decided to just stroll over roofs and just wait for something to happen. Nothing happend for an hour or so.

_"This is starting to get boring. Is Peter over-exaggerating the crime-level in this town."_ Just a few seconds later she could hear a alarm go off in the distance. _"I stand corrected."_

_

* * *

_

Four men stepped out of their escape vehicle with there hands full of large electric products, still in their package.

"The cops still after us?"

"No, I think we lost em."

"Heh, and no of those freaks showed up either."

"Come on. Let's get these things inside before someone see us."

All four stepping through the door to a old closed up building where they put all their stolen goods on a table.

"So, what ye think we can get for all this?"

"I don know. A couple o hundred for each, maybe thousen?"

"You know, it's kinda bad no superhero showed up."

All the other criminals looked at their companion with surprise.

"What? You crazy?"

"You wanna go back to jail or something?"

"Oh come on, guys. I've seen those freaks on TV an they don't seem that though. Think what it would mean to be to put the smack down on Daredevil or somethin."

"You ARE crazy."

"I'm serius, guys. I wish I had a superhero here right now."

"Well if your looking for a superhero, then you just hit the jackpot!"

The four robbers looked around to see where that voice came from, then something came falling down from the ceiling. A woman, shorter then any of them, with long red hair landed on her feets and when she stood up they saw that she was wearing the most strangest outfit in green, white and gold.

"You know, I thought that my first criminals would be a little cooler then some punks stealing TiVos. But I guess you have to start somewhere."

"Who tha hell are you?

"Me? Oh, I'm just this citys new big time superhero. You can call me Jackpot. Not 'The Jackpot', just Jackpot."

The robbers looked at eachother, like _'She can't be serious'._ One of them, the same who wanted a superhero to show up, picked up a crowbar and stepped closer to the one who called herself Jackpot.

"'Kay. Listen little lady. If you don't turn that butt of yours around right now, youre in a word of trouble."

"Um, number one; It's pronounced 'world'. One child left behind and all. Number two; don't you seem to get what the whole term 'superhero' means."

The big crook laughed.

"Oh yeah? Well then why don't you tell me what it means?"

"Well, for one thing it means I can do this!"

She then kicked him right in the stomach, not hard but enough to make him fly into the wall while the crowbar stayed in the air for a second before it hit the floor. The other robbers first stared at their knocked out partner in awe, until one of them yelled;

"Get her!"

All three of the still standing crooks ran against Jackpot, who gave out a "Whoa." since she was a little unused to the reaction. One of them tried to hit her, but she beat him to it.

"Back off, punk!" she said when her fist connected to his jaw.

The second one tried to smash her with a pipe, but she reacted with speed that surprised even her, grabbing the pipe in the air and snatched it from him. She then grabbed on to the crooks shirt and lifed him up in the air and tossed him aside. But doing so, her mask slided up just a little bit, making her goggles shift position and blocking her view.

"What... What happen...?"

The last robber took this opportunity and hit the young woman over her face.

"AAAGH!" she cried out when she tripped to the ground. The three criminals gathered around her as she laid there.

"Man, I think she knocked out a tooth."

"Who tha hell is this?"

"Just some mutie trying to be something."

"What about Jeffrey?"

"Let him lie there til he wakes up. What shall we do about her?"

"I say we tie her up and dump her in the river."

"No. Let's strip her, take pictures and put 'em on the web."

A normal person had been unconscious or in great pain by a blow like that, but for Jackpot it had only knocked her of balance. While the punks argued on what to do about her, she had reagined her focus and adjusted her mask so she could see again. Just as the thugs had come to an agreement, she kicked out her legs and hit two of them in the knees. As they fell to the floor in pain, Jackpot got up on her legs (at incredible speed) and sucker punched him in the guts. He fell down too. The young superhero was now the only one capable of standing. She left the building, muttering.

"Idiots."

* * *

Mary Jane was viewing her reflection in the glass of a skyscraper, trying as best as she could to examine her face without removing the mask.

"No bruise, nothing. Guess my body is much tougher now, thank goodness. That could have gone better, MJ girl. But I guess it could gone a lot worse on the first day. I have to fix the mask so it doesn't slip up like that again."

Then her super-hearing picked up what sounded like a bank alarm a few blocks away.

_"Guess that's my music from now on."_

* * *

When MJ arrived at the bank there was no police to be seen, but inside there was two guys in ski masks, all the staff and customers laying on the floor with their hands behind their heads. MJ took a deep breath and headed inside.

"Hi. Is this where I could get a free toaster when I open a account?"

One of the bankrobbers came up, waving with a handgun.

"Wha-what are you doing?! Get down on the floor!"

MJ tried to swallow that lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. Maybe she had biten off more then she could chew this time. She slowly reached her hands into the air.

"Okay, take it easy now. Listen, you don't wanna do this."

"Shut up! I said get down to the floor!"

His hand, and so the gun, started to shake.

"Listen. We can make this really easy for us all. Surrender yourself and I'm sure they won't be too hard on you. At least let all these people go."

The robbers hand continued to shake, MJ know she had to do something before things got worse. So before the robber had time to even blink, she had snatched the gun out of his hand and lifted him up in the air. Just then the second robber peek out his head from behind the cashier.

"Whata hell?!"

He took out a shotgun and aimed it at her, and MJ reacted instinctively. She threw the first robber at the second one, making them slam into eachother. She then ran as fast as she could up to them and smack the rifle out of his hand. At that moment a man on the floor took the opportunity to take out his cellphone, he managed to take a picture of the mysterious woman deliver a punch to one of the robbers.

MJ looked at the two criminals she just knocked out cold. "Are there any more of them?" she asked the security guard on the floor.

"Y-yeah, one more. In the vault."

"Okay, everybody stay where you are."

MJ got to the vault door just when another robber, with a shotgun and a bag of money, walked out.

"Who the...?" This guy, contrary to his friends, took no changes when it came to people in colorful costumes. He lifted up the gun and pulled the trigger.

That half a second seemed like an hour. MJ jumped out of the way just in the right time for the pellets to miss her and hit the wall instead. She grabbed the thugs gun before he had change to cock it, took it from him and bended it into a U like a Twizzler.

MJ walked out from that vault, dragging the last unconscious robber behind her. The man with the phone took another picture.

"Is... Is everybody okay?"

"Yeah... I mean, nobody is hurt at least. Who... who are you?" the security guard said.

"Oh, I am Jackpot. I am kind of new on this stuff, I'm just glad I could help. I... got to go now. Remember, it's Jackpot, tell your friends."

She dropped the robber and walked out of the bank, headed into the alley and climbed up to the roofes as she heard police sirens in the distance. When she had got herself far away enough she finally had change to catch a breath. She placed her hand on her heart and leaned against a wall, panting.

"Oh my god! I can't believe I just did that. Oh my god! I did it! I'm a superhero! I'M A SUPERHERO!!!"

* * *

Back at the bank, when the police had made sure that the robbers was locked up and all the hostages were okay, the man who had taking pictures with his cellphone decided to call a number to check for something.

"Yeah hi. Is this the Daily Bugle? Good, I wonder, how much do you guys pay for pictures. 'Cause I got some that you people might find worth the money."


	6. Chapter 6

_"My life is pretty good."_

Peter Parker really liked his working place, but again who doesn't? Working at a cool newspaper sure had its ups. He where in the center of the action and when there was something happening in the city, he was one of the first to find out about it. It had helped him more then a few times in his superhero work.

This sunday he was doing his usual work on the Daily Bugle's website, gobbling down junk food and candy while doing it. He had missed his lunch again.

"Hey, Parker! Heads up, I got stuff coming in by mail."

Ned Leeds was okay to work with, but his breath had a tendency to smell like beer all the time.

"All right, buckling up. What's the stuff about." the young intern asked.

"Apparently there was some new superhero stopping a bankrobbery not two hours ago. I tell you, they keep popping up like mushrooms out of the ground."

The word superhero caught Peters attention.

_"New superhero, huh? This could be interesting. Maybe I got some competition."_

His computer then made little beep.

"Okay, Mr Leeds. Pictures coming right up. Hm the're a little blurry, must been taken with a cellphone, but I think I can fix that."

A few taps on the keybord and the pictures got a little clearer. Both Leeds and Parker took a look at the screen in front of them. It showed a redheaded woman in a green and white spandex costume punching out a masked robber. Other photos showed the same woman dragging another knocked out robber out from a bank vault and another showed her back as she left the bank.

"Not really Pulitzer price class, but it will do." the younger computer whiz said.

Leeds leaned in closer. "Get a load of the casabas on her."

Peter raised an eyebrow, Ned did have a piont, the woman was pretty well-endowed. "Who is that?"

"They said she called herself Jackpot."

_"Jackpot? Jackpot... Why do that sound like something I should know about?"_

Then Mr Robertsson came up and took Leeds attention.

"Ned, I got a job for you. That superheroine we just got in, some people saw her walk out from a place where the police found a gang of unconciouness thiefes earlier today. Round up some comments from the police and interview people from the bank and make a story out of it, will you?"

"Right, chief, I'm on it. Peter, save those photos in a file for me, okay?"

"Sure thing."

Peter took a closer look at the photos while he was saving them.

_"Why does she looks so familiar? I can't... Now I got it, she's got the same hairdo as MJ has. Ha, she looks just like... Wait a minute!"_

He zoomed in on the picture but the definition was to bad to say anything.

_"She looks a awful lot like MJ, but that can't be. This woman got to be like twenty-five, at least twenty. It has to be a coincidence." _His eyes moved over to the phone on his desk_. "Maybe I should call her. Yeah, just to check how her day has been_._"_

He dialed her cellphone number. He hread the tone ring once. He heard it ring twice. Three times. Four times. Five. Six. Seven. He let it ring ten times before he hang up. Strange, MJ always answer her phone if she got it with her. Suspicion started gnawing the back of his head.

_"I have to go out and check it for myself."_

He logged out and grabbed his jacket. On the way out the ran into Mr Robertsson.

"Already done Peter?"

"Um, yeah. Well, the importent stuff at least. Something came up and I have to skedaddle."

"Okay. See you next week."

Peter headed to the elevator and took it down to first floor. Inside his head there was a battle between reason and suspicion.

_"It can't be possible, but on the other hand, stranger things has happened. No, why am I even thinking something that prepostious. I got to find out for sure."_

* * *

After stopping the bandrobbery the day slowed down for MJ, aka Jackpot. She had stopped a theif from running away with an old womans bag, otherwise the afternoon had been completly action-free. But now she think that she was on to something. She was jumping over the roofs in Midtown Manhattan when she saw a car that had stopped in the middle of the street. When she moved closer she saw that it was a money transport van that had been stopped by several armed men. All the security personal was either beaten to the ground or was held down with a gun to their heads, while some guys were loading over money bags to a second car.

MJ leaned over the edge to the roof, she took a deep breath and then throwed herself out in the air. She landed with her feets on the lamppost and bounced of it like on a divingboard, and then she landed on top of two of the hijackers, pushing them down to the ground.

Some of the robbers came to their partners help, surprised yet not unprepared, aiming their weapons at MJ. She jumped up over their heads, Spider-man style, landed behind their backs and knocked one of them out. In the mean time, all the security guards took the chanse to sneak away.

Two of the criminals fired their weapons at MJ, but she ducked out of the line of fire and succeeded to punch them out before they could fire again. Now she had taking care of five robbers, but she was sure she had counted to six earlier. She heard a car door slam, and looking up, she noticed how the last hijacker had got inside the escape vehicle. She heard the ignition, and jumped at the car as fast as she could. She grabbed the bumper with both hands and held it as hard as she could. Her nostrils got filled with the smell of burned rubber as the wheels spinned against the concrete without moving anywhere. Then suddenly she fell back and landed on her butt, bumper in her hands, while the car crashed into a newsstand. MJ got up and rubbed her backside.

"Glad to have such a fine tush to brake my fall with." she muttered sarcasticly.

She took a quick peek at the driver of the crashed car, he was fine, he had just been knocked uncionsciouss by the airbag. _"Lucky I got this one done fast. It could have got really ugly." _She throw away the bumper and looked around. Several money bags layed all over the street and the security guards were nowhere to be find.

_"Maybe I should pick these things up before someone do something stupid."_

She picked up two bags and walked to the van where she put them inside, she then repeated it with some of the other bags. She had to lean inside the van to put the last bags inside.

"Ahum." a voice said behind her suddenly, making her froze on the spot. "You know, I'm not what you call a fashion expert, but I don't think those bags matches our outfit."

MJ slowly turned around and saw the red and blue superhero Spider-man standing on the same lamppost she herself had jumped on earlier. MJ's mouth moved but no words came out, she didn't know what say. There she was, with a money bag still in her hands, and now her superhero-boyfriend was mistaking her for a theif.

"... uh..."

"Yeah, I have that effect on people. I heard you're new in town, but apperently there most have been a huge misunderstanding somewhere. See, you gave the impression that you were a hero, and then you do this. Last time I checked, heroes don't take money that aren't theirs.

MJ dropped the bag, with a shocked expression on her face.

"I... I..."

"She talks! Apperently just one letter, but it's still much more of a sofisticated conversation then most of the guys I have to fight."

"F-f-f..."

"I got to praise you on your choice of costume though. Do like the colors, and the amount of, um, exposed skin is really a bold statement."

MJ started to panicked, and without knowing what to do, she started to run.

"Hey! Come back, I'm not done talking! Why do all girls run away from me?"

MJ ran as fast as she could, and she could hear the 'thwip-thwip' of her boyfriends webslinging behind her back. She turned at every corner and rushed through every alley she came up to, hopping to shake him off.

_"Whoa, she's fast. Not web-swing-fast, but still pretty fast. And I have to admit, the view from behind here ain't bad."_ the spider-hero thought as all he could see was the young womans backside.

Jackpot ran into a very narrow alley, which Spidey swinged through. But when he came out on the other side of the buildings, she was nowhere to be found.

"Oh great. I lost her." the young hero said. "Well, at least that answer some questions, MJ would never steal money from any one. To bad about the crazy runaway lady though, I wouldn't mind do a little super-battle with such a hottie. Whoa, easy there Spidey, remember you got a girlfriend. Why do I keep talking to myself?"

The red and blue hero swinged away along the street, while the misunderstood heroine peek out from the shadows. Tears was running down her cheeks and her lower lip trembled.

_"God, why did I do that? I'm so stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid!" _She smacked herself on the forehead every time she the word stupid came up in her head. _"I should have let the bags lay on the ground, now Peter thinks I'm a criminal. Oh god. How could I ever be able to look him in the eyes again?"_

* * *

MJ definitely had enough for today. She sneaked back to where she had hidden her backpack and changed into her normal clothes. She sobbed on the bus all the way home to Queens. When she got home she went straight up to her room without saying hi to her mother. She throwed her backpack on the floor and burried her face into her pillow. She lied in her bed for hours, ignoring her mothers calls, and stared into the wall. When she finally had calmed down she picked up her cellphone. It showed a picture of Peter with the name 'Tiger' under it, meaning that he had tried to call her earlier today. She gave out a long sigh and decided to take a bath.

"God, look at me." she said when she looked in the bathroom mirror. Her mascara was running and her hair was in a tangle. "I'm a wreck."

She turned on the bathtub tab and poured in some of the bubble bath, she then took of her clothes and stepped into the tub. Certain parts of her bobbing to the surface like apples.

"Oh stay down will you. I have enough on my mind even without you two hitting me on the chin."

When the tub was filled almost to the edge with water she turned off the tab and then leaned back her head and closed her eyes. It had been a long day and she had a lot to think about. First it had started out so good with her helping all those people and busting all those punks, and then it all blew up in her face. First she wondered if she should forget about the whole thing and try to just be normal instead, but after some consideration she know it was no idea to give up now. That's not the woman Peter fell in love with.

She had laid in the bath for an hour before she got up, deciding to stop when she started to look like a raisin. She put on her bathrub and headed back into her room where she started to brush her hair in front of her mirror. When she was done she pulled out her Jackpot-costume and the sewing needle.

"Guess I'm not giving up on you that easy, huh?"

MJ adjusted the suit so it didn't run up her butt when she moved and so the mask stuck on her head instead of jumping up over her eyes. The time was almost eleven when she was finished, tomorrow was schoolday, so she started to get ready for bed. She made her bed and then got down to the kitchen to get herself a sandwich before bed. But with her appetite it was more like a cake with cheese, ham and mayonnaise. Then she brushed her teeth and hit the sack. Tomorrow was gonna be a tough day.


	7. Chapter 7

_"Gyyaaargh!!!"_

MJ opened her eyes. She had that dream again and it was really starting to annoy her. She got up, put on some baggy clothes and got ready for school. Luckely, she thought, that they weren't having physical lesson until later this week, otherwise it would have raised some uncomfortable questions.

* * *

All the school classes that morning went pretty smooth, and soon enough the lunch hour came. The lunch lady was serving tater tots and some kind of meat (No one was completly sure of what kind). MJ took three times the amount of food on her plate she would had otherwise. Peter looked pretty surprised when she walked up to his table, carrying a mountain of food.

"Hoookay. I think I've found the reason for that weight gain you talked about, MJ. You sure you're not pregnant?"

"Don't be silly, Peter. I'm just very very hungry. And besides, how could I be pregnant when we haven't even _'done it'_?"

"How should I know? Maybe you took some of my DNA and are trying to snare me."

"Why would I do that? I already got you snared."

"True."

They ate in silence, Mary Jane was not really in the mood for talking.

"MJ, is everything allright?" Peter asked. "You haven't said a word all morning."

"Hm? Oh, I'm okay. I'm just... I'm just still feeling off that sickness, I guess. Is that the Bugle?"

Peter took up the newspaper he had purchased earlier today.

"Yep. Say, have you heard about that new 'superheroine' that people are talking about? This Jackpot?"

MJ looked up from her plate. "Just a little. How so?"

"Well, they got a article about her in todays Bugle."

"Really? Let me see."

Pete handed his girlfriend the paper which she looked through until she had find the right page.

"Here it is. 'New York Citys already large community of superheroes have got another'... I didn't know you guys had a community?"

"It's more like union."

"Mm-hm." She continued. "'The apparently self-made vigilante, which call herself Jackpot'... Vigilante? She dosen't comes up like a vigilante in my eyes."

Peter shrug his shoulders. "I guess Jameson have a finger in it. You know what Old Man Picklepuss thinks about us freelancing heroes."

MJ nodded. Getting a praise from Jonah Jameson was not something she strived for, she didn't even think she wanted it.

"Hey. Here is says that she saved a money transport from some hijackers yesterday."

"What? She did?"

He swallowed the bait with hook and everything. Mary Jane was hoping that she could make her boyfriend change his mind after yesterdays fiasco. She handed him the paper.

"Yeah, right there. They have pictures to prove it."

"Oh... Then I think I've made a big ass of myself."

"How so?" MJ asked, putting her right elbow on the table and leaning on her hand, really wanting to hear this.

"Well, I kinda ran into her just after she saved that truck. And I... I mistook her for robbing it."

"And you don't think that all the unconscious masked thugs laying on the street was a big give away?"

Peter started to rub his neck. "Yeah... I kinda screwed things up there. But it did look like it, and she ran away from me, of course I mistook her for a for a crook. It happend before that criminals claims to be good guys."

MJ shook her head. "Peter, I think that next time you meet this girl you should offer her an apology."

"Guess I have to."

MJ laughed on the inside, Peter was so cute when she pulled in his strings. She took another look at the pictures in the paper, it wasn't the best quality which was proberly for the best right now, with her sitting right in front of Peter. Lucky he was so gullible.

Then a evil thought came up in her head.

"Peter?" she said with a grin on her face. "Do you think she's hotter then me?"

Peter almost choked on his coke. "Wh-what?"

"Do you think she's hotter then me?" Oh, she was really gonna let him wriggle on that hook.

"Um... She... She got the same hair as you do."

"That's not an answer to my question, a lot of woman have tha same hair as I have. Is she hotter then me?"

Peter took a deep breath, this was the question that all men in a relation feared. "She's kinda good looking... but not as good looking as you are, sweetheart."

MJ's grin grow even bigger. If he only knew.

"But you do think she got a hot body, right? Hotter then mine?"

"D-d-d-d... I think... Yeah, she's hot but... I think... you... you..."

_"Oh my god. I think I just broke him." _MJ thought, widely amused by the scene.

"I think you're superhot, MJ. It's just... it's... Wait a minute! You're pulling my leg here, aren't you?"

"Yes I am. And you're so cute falling for it." MJ said while she leaned in and gave her boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek.

"Funny..." the young ridiculed boy said. "You would make a great supervillain, MJ."

Mary Jane patted her beloved boyfriend on his cheek. "Every woman in the world would, Tiger."

* * *

After school Peter had to head back to The Bugle to pick up his paycheck, so MJ decided to continue her hero training. She headed back to midtown, but today was a lot slower then yesterday. The only thing she found, in several hours, was a cat that was stuck in a tree. Sure she helped it get down and the little girl who owned the cat was very grateful, but it wasn't really the same.

_"Strange. You think that crime would be more active on a monday then on a sunday."_

_

* * *

_

Ben Urich was standing in line to his bank. He hated when they took such a time, he should been back at work by now already. Urich had a bad experience with banks, and today was unfortunately only going to make it worse.

The entrance doors blow into the air with a giant explosion, making all the people in the bank fall to the floor. As the dust settled, Urich looked up from the floor and saw a terrifying sight.

In through the hole in the wall walked a creature most intimidating. It was much taller then a normal person, and very muscular. It had long, wild red hair, evil yellow eyes and two large horns jutting out of it's forehead. It was covered in grey scute-covered skin, like the skin of an alligator only lighter color, which adding to it's swelling muscles made it look very Hulk-like. It's clothes was only a pair of ragged pants and an spiked leather belt, with several grenades hanging on to it, leaving it's broad muscular chest uncovered. And in it's right hand it carried a large silver gleaming battle axe, to large for a normal man to carry in just one hand.

Urich had one thought in his head; _"Man, why does this always happen when I'm trying to cash in my paycheck?"_

The creature walked past all the people lying on the floor, and stepped up to the cashier. It then throwed a large bag to the terryfied womans arms.

"Fill this up." the monster said in a raspy, dark voice. "And if I find any dye packs, you can expect THIS to happen to you."

By that, the creature swung its axe into the cashier desk, spliting it in two. The cashier, getting the point, started to fill the bag up with money bills very fast. The monster then turned around to face the banks two security guards that haved got up from the floor and was now aiming at it with their guns.

"Oh, what is this?" the giant creature chuckled. "And what do you little not-really-cops think you could do?" The monster stepped closer, and out of panic, one of the guards fired his gun. The bullet connected with the creatures grey skin and stopped there. It could't brake the creatures leathery hide more then it could pierce through a tank. The crushed piece of steel fell to the floor with a small chink.

"I guess I should thank you, I wasn't completly sure if I were bulletproof. Thank you." And by that, the frightening creature slammed both the guards, making them fly across the room. "Now, where's my money?"

"H-h-here..." the panicked cashier said as she reached out the full bag with a shaking hand.

"Thank you."

The giant creature snatched the bag and threw it over it's own shoulder, it was just about to leave when a small shadow appeared against the light in the hole in the wall.

"Wow. Sure, the light in here is great, and the air is fantastic. But it dosen't look like it's very safe to me."

The shadow moved in under the roof, revealing a young, beautiful woman in a green and white spandex costume, with a mane of red hair.

"Okay, so, can we do this quick becuase I have dinner in less then half an hour and I'm sure you... you... heh, you're kinda big, aren't you?"

The young superhero saw the giant creature standing in front of her, and she was quite startled. The monster, on the other hand, seemed more amused.

"Ha! What are you supposed to be?"

"I'm... I am Jackpot. You know, the superhero?"

"Oh yeah, I read about you." the grey monster said while putting down the bag and lifting up its axe. "I was hopping that I would run into someone like you. Well, I was really hopping that I would run into someone big and famous, like Spider-man. But you will do."

"Um... thanks..." Jackpot was not really sure how she was supposed to act in situations like this. This was a genuine supervillain, something she had absolutely no experience of.

"Let's dance, shall we?"

The giant monster throw its axe at Jackpot with incredible speed, the young heroine gave out a scream as she threw herself to the floor, jumping out of the axes way by just an inch. Before she had a chance to get up on her legs again, the monster had rushed up and kicked her hard in her stomach which made her fly out from the bank like a fired bullet. She smashed into a car that was parked on the other side of the road.

"Oh god... gnnnnnnnnn... ow..." the teenage hero whined while she writhed in pain on the ground. She rolled over on her back, her entire body was aching and all she could see was stars. "What happen'd...?"

"I happen'd!"

Jackpot shook her head, shaking of the dizziness. Then she noticed the giant creature that just had sent her flying approach from the other side of the street, axe in its hand. It stepped upon a car instead of go around it, crushing the vehicle under its weight.

"Okay, that was... ow... that was a lucky hit!" Jackpot yelled as she got up, stroking her aching body. "I'm gonna get you in round two."

"Sure you are, pipsqueak." the beast mocked her with a grin that showed a mouth full of sharp teeth. "Come on, give me your best shot."

Jackpot charged at the big monster, raising her fist to deliver a raging punch. But the giant villain grabbed her fist in the air before she could land it on the creature.

"Not particularly impressive."

Before Jackpot could react, she felt her face connect with the handle of the creatures axe, then the monster hit her hard over the chest. The girl landed on the concrete several feets behind her previous position, feeling the taste of blood in her mouth and even more pain in her body. Then she felt a immense pressure over her torso as the giant villain put its grey, clawed foot over her chest. It had a a sinister smile over its ugly, demonic face when it looked down on the young hero.

"This is going to make my name in the world." it said, raising ithe axe high in the air.


	8. Chapter 8

Mary Jane could see a bright light flash before her eyes. For one short moment, she was sure she was dead. But then the light disappered and another light flashed. And then another.

The monster that held the young superhero down with just its foot, lowered its axe and turned its head around.

"Do you mind?" it said with its dark and creepy voice. "I'm trying to perform a coup de grâce here."

The reporter Ben Urich had pulled up his digital camera and was taking pictures of the whole scene. He was of course not listening to the vile beast, but continued hitting that button on the little machine.

The creature raised it axe again, ready to deal the lethal blow. "At least we'll be on first page tomorrow, right?" it said.

A pearl of sweat ran down Jackpots forehead, now she had to think fast. The axe fell, speeding against her face like a meteor. Having at least her arms free, Jackpot moved her hands in and catch the blade between the palms of her hands. She held the axe in the air, shaking as both the monster and the young hero tried to force it the opposite direction.

More sweat came down over her face, the axe slowly moving inch by inch closer to her nose. She felt how her strenght started to fail her in her arms, the creature being stronger then her. In an act of desperation, she yanked the axe to the left, making the blade hit the ground and the creature trip.

As the monster fell to the ground beside her, Jackpot tried to get up on her feets, only to find her head stuck to the ground. She pulled herself harder, and heard what could only be described as a rip nex to her ear. She looked down and saw one curl of red hair being stuck between the concrete and the large axe. She gasped in shock and held her the back of her head.

"MY HAIR!!! You ruined my hair! That's it! It's one thing to try to kill me, but don't you dare touch my hair!"

It was more of a nervous joke then a actual statement, but deep within there was more truth to it then she would admit to herself.

The grey monster got up on it's legs, and Jackpot charged against it. She delivered a mighty kick in that place that would fell all men. But as Jackpots foot connected to the creatures groin with a loud thud, the creature merely flinched while the teens foot started to ache.

"Ow... okay... Bad idea."

"Does all you hereos fight like sissy girls, eh?"

"More then we admit."

The villain slapped the smaller hero and send her flying again. When the young girl got up again she saw how the monster lifted up a car over its head, which more ease then she had a few days ago. Jackpot merely jumped out of the way of a flying volvo that smashed into the sidewalk and broke a fire hydrant, making a fountain appear on the street. Urich ducked in behind a truck while Jackpot got soaked.

MJ didn't waste any time, when the monster walked against her, she ripped of the cars two wheels and threw one of the tires in the creatures face. When the grey monster blocked the the wheel from hitting its face, Jackpot rushed up and smacked the creature across its ugly face with the second tire. A tooth and some orange blood came flying out the things mouth.

Jackpot hit the vile creature as hard and fast as she could, hoping to make the thing go down before it did any more damage. But soon the giant monster got back the upper hand, it smashed the tire out of the young heroines hands and kicked across the street. The girl flew into a lamppost, hitting her back and bending the lamppost into a angle.

"You are one tough cookie, girl." the big monster told while wiping of blood from its mouth. "Looks like I got to incinerate you to get rid of you. Here, catch."

With that, the beast grabbed one of the grenades that it carried in its belt, pulled it of and ripped of the safety, it then throw the grenade at Jackpot. The redheaded hero reacted in a way surprising even her. She moved closer towards the incoming grenade, jumped up, moved her feet up and kicked the grenade back, then moved her feets over her head in a somersault, landing gracefully on both her feet. All in a sort of flashkick-style.

"Oh shi--"

The grenade exploded in the midair halfway between Jackpot and her opponent. The blast caused them both to fall back and land on their backs, covered in dirt and with tiny pieces of shrapnel on their clothes. Ben Urich tripped behind the car he was hiding behind and dropped his camera, it slinked down under the vehicle.

MJ was sure she passed out for a second. She found herself on her back again (she was sure there was a joke there somewhere), all she could see was stars, all she could hear was a ringing sound, and her entire body refused to obey her.

The evil creature got up on its legs, shaking of dust and holding its aching head. It noticed the young heroine lying down, face up, not thirty feet from it. The grey villain walked up to the fallen teenager and looked down upon her. It then reached down and pulled down the heros golden mask, revealing the face of a beautiful, if yet beaten and bruised, young girl.

"How old are you? Eighteen? Seventeen?"

MJ could just whine in responce. Now police sirens could be heard in the distance, which made the creature react, it grabbed the moneybag in one hand and picked up its battleaxe in the other.

"I would love to stay and finish this, but I have already fallen to far behind my schedule. So, cheerio."

With one giant leap the grey brute disappeared over the rooftops. Meanwhile, MJ forced herself up on her legs while shaking off that ringing in her ear.

"Gnnnn... What happen'd? Oh my god, my mask! He pulled off my mask! That jerk pulled off my mask!!!"

She quickly pulled her mask back up over her face and adjusted the goggles in right position, just in time for the cops to arrive. She was really not in the mood to answer any questions, so she speeded out of there as fast as she could drag her beaten up body, just before Urich finally fished out his camera.

* * *

If someone had flied over one particular roof in New York this day, they would have seen one young, recently made superheroine, sitting with her back at a big ventilation shaft. Her face was in her hands, and she was crying, very much.

Her suit was dirty and slightly torned, with the left eye on her goggles broken, her hair was in a mess and her skin was bruised. Her left eye was black and her right cheek was swollen up. All her muscles were aching, she properly had a broken rib and she was sure she had sprained her foot. But all that considered, the thing that was really damaged, was her spirit.

"I can't... I can't do this. I-I could have died..." she managed to speak out between her sobbing. "I can't-- oh god. I can't do this."

She pulled her finger in under her mask and cleaned the unbroken part of her googles that started fog up. She wiped her nose on her arm and buried her face between her arms.

"What was really I thinking? I was such an idiot to think I could pull off being a hero."

"Hey, are you allright?"

Mary Jane got up like shot out of a cannon. Standing right to her stood the man she last wanted to see her like this.

"Oh god... A-are you okay? You look like... like... I dunno." Spider-man asked her, obviusly notecing her injuries.

MJ swallowed that lump in her throat, her lip started to tremble and more tears came down her cheeks.

"No..." she said, her voice thick from the crying. "I just got my butt kicked by a big monster. I don't think I'm cut out to be a hero."

"Aw come on, don't say that. Here, take this." He handed her one of his gloves. "Well, I don't have any hankies. And don't worry about soiling it, I'm already a pig so it won't make a big difference."

MJ slipped the glove in under her mask and dried the pearls of saltwater on her cheek, she could smell Peters deodorant on the glove. A smell she always had found soothing.

"There you go."

She then blew her nose in it. Spidey got back one wet glove that he stared at for a good while before he wiped it off on his leg.

"Sorry..." Jackpot said pretty meekly.

"It's okay. Now, tell me, what happen'd?"

The redhead sank back down to the floor with her back to the air drum, sighning.

"I just... I messed up. There was this big monster-guy who rubbed a bank, blew up a hole in the wall and everything, and I jumped in head first like a moron. And I got my ass handed to me, he unmasked me and everything, I thought I would die there."

Spider-man nodded. "Oh, I see." He then sat down next to his sobbing colleague. "Jackpot, right?" MJ nodded. "I know exactly what you're talking about. Listen, that have happen to me so often now I lost count a long time ago."

"Really?"

"Sure. You think you're sad? Trust me, I'm the king of superhero-blues. Have you heard of this guy they call Doctor Octopus? Sunglasses, bad haircut, four metal arms? Puts the _nut_ in nutty nutbar?"

Jackpot nodded. "I've heard of him."

"Well, you see, he kicked the snot out of me the first time I met him. I did just what you did, and got beaten up. I was pretty bummed out about it, I realised that's part of this whole superhero-mathingy-stuff. I got back up on my feets and knocked the socks of him."

MJ nodded again. He had seen the whole thing on TV, which she wouldn't say right now, of course.

"This hero-thing is absolutly not all beer and skittles, I tell ya."

"Yeah, I've noticed that allready."

"Yep, I can't tell you how many times my mask been pulled off. But there's a good side of this too. I mean, you already saved a lot of people, haven't you?"

Jackpot raised her unswollen eyebrow at the guy next to her. "How would you know? You took me for a thief."

Spidey gulped. "Yeah... about that-- I'm sorry about the otherday. I was a complete tool there."

"It's okay. I shouldn't have run away like that, but I panicked."

"Hey, we all spas out in this job sometime. Say, you won't mind if I ask you how you got your powers? I'm kind of a geek in that subject."

"There's really no idea to ask. I have no idea how."

"Then you could be a mutant."

"Maybe..." MJ had really not thought about that before, it would explaine a lot of questions, but not all of them. "I heard you got bit by a spider?"

"A BIG spider. It was a freak accident, I really fell ass backward into this. At first I thought I could use these powers for my own benefit, you know, but then something happen and someone I cared for died. That's when I realised what I was really meant to do, use my powers to help others. So, what made you join up the costumed guild?"

Jackpot looked straight out over the skyline and thought about it. "I think it was you. You're the greatest hero I know, I wanted to make you proud, wanted to be a hero like you."

"Whoa... Nice to know I have such a great fan. Just don't give up, okay? You gotta hang in there."

"As long as I don't have to face any monsters again."

Spider laid his hand on the young girls well sculptured shoulder. "Don't let it bother you, you'll get back on him. If you ask me, it sounds like you just got your very first archnemesis. I should know, I got twelwe. All of them in the Tri-state region. But I'm sure you'll do great."

Finnally a smile broke out on the mopey heroines face. Peter really was a sweet guy.

"Say." the teen boy said and got up on his legs. "I can't give you a ride somewhere?"

"Oh. Yes, thanks."

* * *

The young couple landed on a rooftop Jackpot had pointed out. The young woman hopped off the young mans back, finally feeling more cheerful.

"That was awesome!"

"Yeah, that's what my girlfriend keep saying."

"Oh, so that means you're spoken for. Shoot."

"Ha ha. Felling better?"

MJ put her hands behind her back. "Yes I am. Thank you so much."

"No problem, glad I could help. So, you'll keep on the hero stuff?"

"Well I pretty much have to. I got a responsibility you know."

"Just what I was about to say."

The two younglings stood silent for a moment, looking at eachother.

"Hey." the kid in red and blue said.

"What?" the one in green and gold wondered.

"Your face all cleared up. You most heal pretty fast."

Jackpots hand moved up to her cheek. "I guess so. I find out new stuff about my powers on daily basis now."

Spider-man tilted his head. "You... you got really nice eyes. I didn't see that when they where all swolled up."

"Oh... thanks."

They both didn't say a word for a least half a minute. There was something in the air that one could cut with a butter knife, something that make people fog up windows in small rooms.

_"He has no idea! I should become an actress, I'm that good. Poor Peter, so unaware of everything."_

"I-- I, uh..." The young spider suddenly find himself in a, for him, awkward situation. "I should... I should skedaddle. I got stuff to do so..."

"Oh, okay. I guess I see you around." And by that she moved in and gave the spider a big bear hug. "Thank you, you're a real hero in my book, Tiger."

"I-- I'm just glad I could help."

The teenage hero could almost feel his hormones rush through his body, that hug made every cell in his body explode.

Jackpot turned around and jumped away, leaving Spider-man alone with his thoughts.

_"CALM DOWN!!! You already got a girlfriend, you dirty idiot. You got a girlfriend, you got a girlfriend! I wouldn't trade MJ for any one, not even someone that hot. Get those dirty thoughts out of that thick skull of yours. Jackpots just a friend, like Daredevil. Well... not really like Daredevil. But for me she could just as well be. She's just-- Wait, what did she said?"_

_

* * *

_

Otto Octavius was sitting in his cell, watching the Television he just been permitted to have in his cell. There was very little on the chanals that he found worth watching, but right now he was watching the news. The locally well knowed TV-reporter Patsy Walker was anchoring;

"Only an hour ago this bank in Midtown, New York, was robbed by an unnamed super criminal. The new superhero called Jackpot quickly arrived to the scene and engaged the criminal in a fight that did much property damage to the street. And we managed to get hold of this exclusive footage."

The TV then showed a shaky video taken from a window with a videocamera. The footage showed the whole fight between Jackpot and her monstrous adversery up until when the grenade explode, where the camera fell to the floor and the screen wen't black.

Doc Ock got up and stepped closer to the TV-screen.

"THIS makes things a lot more interesting."

* * *

**AN: Sorry, only one update today. I would had wrapped this story up a long time ago if it weren't for the positive reviews, so I'm gonna stretch this out a bit more. Tune in for more, and keep the reviews coming, they been gold so far. See ya.**


	9. Chapter 9

When Mary Jane finally got home she stepped into the bathroom the first thing she did, for a closer look at her injuries. Standing in just her panties in front of the mirror, she definitely know that she had looked better. Her skin was bruised and dirty, and she was still a little blue around one of her eyes. She brushed of a lot of dirt from her upper body, and she even pulled out a piece of shrapnel stuck in her skin, more exactly in her cleavage.

_"You sure found a good place to hide, huh? I'm just glad you didn't pierced my lung or something."_

MJ hit the bathtub and stayed there for a long time. If this was gonna keep up, they were in for one large water bill. She combed her hair while sitting in the tub and luckely her hair wasn't totally ruined, if she combed over the curl that been ripped into half, it looked like the incident never happen'd. After getting herself clean and patched up, she started to sew her costume back togather. She didn't had any material to fix her googles, so she had to use her spare mask for a while.

The rest of that afternoon slowly passed by, night came, and after that the next morning. When she woke up and checked herself out in the mirror, she noticed that she had healed up almost completly. The only thing left was a aching in her rib. She was both amazed, happy, and a little scared how fast her body had recovered, but one should not look a gift horse in the mouth they say. The night itself hadn't been good, she had that stupid dream again and she woke up all sweaty and heavily breathing. But that feeling quickly faded away, and soon she was ready for another day of adventure.

* * *

At school, MJ didn't see Peter until ten minutes after class started. He was once again late, which always had MJ wondering. If he could webswing fast enough to catch up with a car, how come he could never get to school in time?

After class, MJ greeted her boyfriend with a very deep kiss, which caused the other student in the hallway to shout and whistle at them.

"Wow... What was that? Not that I'm complaining, MJ."

"Just my way to show how much I appreciate you, Tiger. Listen, what are you doing after school?" MJ asked him.

"I don't know." he answered. "Just some homework I guess. You wanna to it together?"

"Actually, I have something I'd like to tell you. Something important."

"Then why don't you tell me right here."

MJ moved in a little closer to him and almost whispered. "I'd prefer to do it somewhere more private. You know that café we always pass? How about there?"

"Okay." Peter said, a little wondering of what his girlfriend was up to. "I'll just speed back to my place and drop off my stuff, then we'll go there. It's a date then."

Mary Jane had finally decided, she was going to tell him today. Yesterday had given her some perspective, and now she had made her decition, she was gonna tell Peter about her beeing Jackpot.

* * *

The two teenagers entered the coffe shop and ordered a cup of coffee each.

"Where do you want to sit?" Peter asked.

"How about somewhere outside?"

They wen't outside and soon find a bench that where a little aside, which was good since it meant they wouldn't be bothered by passing people.

"So..." Pete said. "What is it that you want to talk to me about?"

MJ took a deep breath, wondered if Peter was this nervous when he told her his secret identity.

"Oh boy, how should I start? Peter-- Have you noticed if I've been acting strange this week?"

"I'll say. You won't answer when I call you on your phone, which I'll did several time this week without success, you dress different, you eat like a horse. And you seem to space out alot of times these days."

"Yeah... you see, there's an explanation to all that."

"Yeah, and I know it's not 'lady-problem' you're having. That is not due for another two weeks."

MJ looked at Peter with surprise. "You're keeping tracks of that?"

"Got to. I gotta be prepared to be careful about what I say."

"Unlike the rest of the month where you spit out whatever meshugas you're thinking of?"

"Exactly."

MJ signed. This was a little harder then she thought.

"It's better if I just say it. Peter, I am--"

BOOM

The big explosion caught the attention of both the teens, and of all the people close by.

"Um, hold that thought, MJ. I got to get to work. Stay here, will you?" Peter said while fishing out his costume from his backpack and rushed off without as much as a goodbye kiss. MJ sat on the bench for a few extra seconds, not really catching what was going on. But then she got the look of an disobediant child in her face.

"Like hell I do!"

And by that she fished out her own costume.

* * *

"Get out of my way, pig!!! Don't you know who I am?!? I'm the Shocker, you dumb-fuck!!!

A blast of highly vibrated force shot a police car high up in the air, making it come down hard and the police officers duck for cover.

"I'm taking this money and you piglets can't stop me!!!"

"Herman, Herman, Herman. Always so predictable."

"Oh no, not YOU again!"

The amazing Spider-man landed between the Shocker and the mayhem he caused the street. The villain in purple trenchcoat and gauntlets got a terryfied look on his face as soon as he faced the young hero.

"I have a bone to pick with you, Hermie. Last I saw you you knocked me unconscious, took off my mask, hung me up like a smoked sausage, took of my mask and tortured me. Left me pretty PO'd, Herm."

Panicking, the Shocker shot a vibro-blast at the young hero. He jumped up into the air and dodged the force wave, then came down and delivered a kick to Hermans chest. The villain got the wind knock out of him and flew back a good few feet, the suit he was wearing absobing most of the power in the blow. Still laying on the ground, he sent another wave at Spider-man, which Spidey avoided easily.

"You sure are pig-headed, Herman. If I were you, I would had given up a long time ago and started to work at Burger King or something."

The teen hero jumped at the crook, but as he was in the air, unable to move out of the way, a new blast came rushing against him. It forced him through the air and pushed him right into brick wall. When he hit the ground, he laid completly still. The Shocker blasted away some police men that weren't already blasted, then he walked up to the blacked out hero.

"THIS TIME... this time I'm gonna finish you good!"

He aimed both his gauntlets at Spider-mans body, attempting to crush the young boy with with a blast. He charged the vibro-batteries to full power.

"Heads up, jerk!"

Someone in green, withe and gold came out of nowhere, bodychecking the Shocker making him fly with great speed into an alley, like a tennis ball shot out of a cannon. Jackpot could hear how he landed among the trash cans, making a racket and scaring a cat.

"Hm, maybe I overdid that. But he deserved it."

She heard Spider-man coming back to life and grabbed his hand, helping him up.

"J-Jackpot...?"

"That's my name."

"What happen'd?"

"Oh you know, bad guy got a lucky shot, knocked you out. Lucky you I got here in time to save your cute little butt."

"Thanks, but my well-shaped butt aside... where did The Human Vibrator go?"

"In there."

They both rush into the alley, just catching Shocker running around a corner further down in.

"Come on! Let's go kick some villain ass!" Jackpot said, very exhilarated, and ran ahead.

_"Wow." _Spider-man thought, smiling to himself. _"She sure got some spirit. There really is something special about her."_

The two teen heroes ran around the corner and ended up on a empty construction site. The Shocker seemed to have disappeared among all the piled up pipelines and building equipment. The two heroes walked in to the site and started to snoop around.

"I feel like we're in an episode of Scooby-Doo." Spider-man joked.

"Well, as long as I don't need to be Shaggy, it's okay with me." Jackpot replied.

"No, you look more like Daphne."

"Isn't she the one who keeps getting in danger all the time?"

"Fine. Be Velma if you wan't to."

"Oh god no. Daphne will do fine."

Jackpot scratched her head. Where had the bad guy gone?

"Is he even here? I don't see a single trace of him."

"He's here. My spidersense are going haywire, he's hiding somewhere."

"Well, he's got to-- DUCK!!!"

Jackpot throw herself and Spider-man to the side, pushing them out of the way from a incoming vibroblast. They landed on the ground, Spidey on his back and Jackpot landing on him, face to face. Peter blushed so much he was sure she could see it through his mask.

"Yeah... um... This is embarrassing."

"Oh I think you're enjoying this, aren't you, handsome?" Jackpot joked while her fingers walked over his chest.

"Listen, there's nothing I'd like more then a hot girl on top of me. But I don't think-- Incoming!"

Spidey grabbed a hold of Jackpot with one arm and shot out a string of web with the other. Hitting a steel girder, he pulled them both of the ground high up in the air, avoiding a new blast wave. Jackpot screamed at the top of her lungs when they flew up like a rocket.

"AEEEEIEEE!!!"

"Ow! My ear."

"Sorry... God, I can't belive I just screamed like a little girl."

"Don't bother, I do it all the time."

Shocker showed his face, taking cover behind a concrete truck, and started sending a volley of blast at the two heroes.

"I'm not going back to jail, you hear me?!?"

Both Spidey and Jackpot had a hard time reaching Shocker while avoiding blast after blast. MJ tried as best as she could to keep up with Peter, jumping from side to side and high up in the air, but he seemed to be so much better with the dodging.

"You know..." Jackpot said to the Shocker. "If you stop this criminal-nonsense, you would make a fortune in pleasing women."

"What? Did I just hear that right?" Spider-man said, amused.

"Oh like it was so much worse then your Human Vibrator-joke."

"It's basically the same joke."

"Would you two SHUT UP?!?!"

Two blast came flying, Jackpot leaped up in the air and did a split jump, feeling the wave of concecrated air beneath her butt like a breeze. Spider-man was not so lucky. He took his blast fullforce, flew backwards and smashed into the side of a porta-potty.

"Hey! That's my partner you're blasting, you big jerk!"

She moved in closer to the Shocker. She wasn't sure how long she would be able to keep up this dodging-thing, so she had to go in on the offensive.

"I know you!" Shocker said while continuing to fire. "You're that Crackpot!"

"WHAT?!? No! It's JACKPOT, asshole! Pick up a paper already!"

Shocker reached out his arm to shoot again. Jackpot, this time only four feet away from him, saw a opportunity and decided to take it, without really knowing what would happen. Fast as a lightning, she punched the Shockers gauntlet, making it look like they were giving eachother a high speed fistbump. The fully charged gauntlet exploded and caused a shockwave that sent both Mary Jane and Herman flying, and the concrete truck to tilt. MJ sat up after taking a rough landing, she noticed that the blast had knocked Shocker out. She also noticed that the shoulder on her suit had slipped down.

"Phew." she told herself while adjusting her costume. "Memo to self, don't do that again."

"Mary Jane...?"

MJ looked up and saw Spider-man standing there, looking at her, and she could almost see how shocked he was despite his mask. She moved her hands up to her face and noticed that her own mask had slipped down and was now hanging around her throat. For half a second she blamed herself for not noticing that the absence of her goggles made her sight go back from slighly yellowish to normal. The feeling of shame started to spread over her body.

"Um, ta-daa..."


	10. Chapter 10

Mary Jane got up on her feets, rubbing her arm like she used to do when she had a guilty conscience.

"Peter... I really didn't wanted you to find out this way. This is what I was trying to tell you ten minutes ago."

Peter was so struck by shock that he could barely talk.

"But... how... HOW!?!"

"It's... kind of a long story. And I really don't want to talk about it here. Can't we go somewhere else?"

MJ could see on his mask that he moved his jaw, but he didn't say anything. He stood in silence until the sirens arrived a few seconds later.

"Like on the cue, huh?" MJ said.

"Come here." Peter said and took MJ under her arm with one hand, jumping high up in the air with her and swinged away.

"Wait, what about our coffee?"

* * *

They soon landed on a rooftop, far away from disturbing people and windows. After they had let go eachothers, there was a long awkward silence. MJ was first to break it.

"There is a nice view from here."

"MJ! What is this!?" Peter yelled while taking of his mask.

"Peter... I know you got a lot of questions, but--"

"If I have!!! I mean, where did all this come from? Where did THOSE come from!?"

MJ blushed a little, she knew what Peter meant by _'those'._ She put her hands behind her back and straighten her shoulders.

"What do you think?" she asked, a little curious.

"What I think? I think I don't got enough super-strenght in me to lift those! I mean, they look like the're gonna pop off and grow boobs of there own."

MJ raised an eyebrow, what was he doing?

"Am I able to adjust your volume with them or something?"

MJ put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. Her boyfriend had entered his spiral of hysterical jokes, which he sometimes did when he didn't knew what to do.

"You-- You could play Shakespeare on that balcony. Are they for distraction or are you planning to club people with'em?!"

MJ crossed her arms. "Are you done?" she asked.

Peter took a deep breath. "Yeah... I think so."

"Good. Because after that, you'll never get to touch them."

Peter suddenly find himself more quiet then he ever been in his whole life.

After a few seconds, the confused boy shaked his head to get back his focus. "Seriusly, MJ! What happen'd to you?"

"I can't really explain it." the young girl said. "You know that time when I got very sick last week?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, I was actually a lot sicker then I showed, I was spasing and cramping and had dizzyspells and everything. And when I woke up the next morning I'd turned into Superwoman. I was feeling fine, better then ever actually, and I had become superstrong and superfast and... and superhungry. So I made this suit, by myself, and thought that maybe I could be your crime fighting partner."

"What? You just changed? Like that?"

"Yeah, so? You changed over night too."

"I got bitten by a spider on 'roids! People just don't change like this for nothing."

MJ shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe it's like you said yesterday, I could be a mutant. Or maybe someone did this to me without me knowing."

Peter put his hand to his head, he couldn't belive that he was hearing, and started to walk around in circles. "No no no, this can't be happening. It can't!"

"Peter, calm down."

"Calm down!? Don't you realise the situation here!?"

"I thought you would he glad for me."

Pete nearly jumped out of his suit. "Glad!?! MJ, you had the chance to live a normal life! Now that's ruined."

"I wouldn't call being Spider-mans girlfriend_ 'normal'._ Come on, at least I can protect myself now. You always worry about me being used by some of your enemies trying to get to you, imagine the look on their faces when the seemingly helpless teenage girl starts kicking the crap out of them."

"MJ! Think about how stupid this is! You're smarter then me, you should know better!"

"What do you mean smarter? You're the science geek in this reletionship."

"Oh yeah? Then how come you got a higher grade point average then me!?"

She rolled her eyes, she thought he answer was pretty obvious. "Maybe because you never get to class in time. I'm sure I can bet you in that area."

But Peters mind couldn't accept the whole situation. He buried his face in his hands, and Mary Jane was sure she could hear him crying.

"This is all my fault. You... you could have been happy. But instead you got dragged into this shit. And it's... it's all my fault...

MJ took Peters hands with her own and moved out of the way of his face, and when he looked up, she kissed him.

"Wha... what was that for?" Pete asked when their lips broke off.

"Sometimes it's the only way to make you calm down. Peter do you remember all the stuff you said to me yesterday, on the rooftop?"

"For gods sake, MJ! You said yourself that you almost died."

MJ put her hands over Peters cheeks. "Do you remember what you said?"

"MJ, this is not--"

"Do you remember!?" she almost yelled out while taking a firmer grip of him.

"Ouch, ouch! Yes, yes I do!"

She let go of his face, realising that she was hurting him.

"Sorry..."

"Man, you really ARE strong."

Mary Jane laid her arms around Peters waist. "Peter, sweetheart, yesterday you told me that I was doing great, and you encouraged me to hang in there. Why is that so different from today?"

"Because it's YOU. You're gonna end up dead in my backyard or... I don't know... Everyone I love have a tendency to get hurt, or worse, killed."

"Honey, what you don't understand is that you are in the exact position I was in."

"What position?"

"Worrying about my sweetie." She lifted her hand and combed back the part of his hair that were blocking out his eyes. "Have it ever occurred to you that I'm terribly worried about you every time you put on your suit? I die on the inside every time I see you being dragged away by some superpowered loony."

The look on Peters face showed that he started to feel guilty, a look he had pretty often.

"I-- I didn't know you felt that way."

"Of course I do. Before I had know chanse to do anything to help you, but now I can. I don't have to sit and wait to find out if you survived or not anymore, I can watch your back myself, make sure you get home safe."

A sign was heard from Peter. "MJ, I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Oh honey, you don't have to worry about that, I'm already getting good at this hero-buisness. You saw me fight that Shocker-idiot, I can take care of myself. Plus, with you besides me, nothing bad could happen."

"MJ..." Peter was losing his strenght, he felt he was fighting a battle he couldn't win. "This isn't that easy. This changes you're going through... They could be dangerous."

"Peter, look at me, I'm feeling great. Just LOOK at me." She stepped back and spinned around, letting her worried boyfriend get a good look of all of her. "I'M HOT! I gain like fifteen pounds of muscles, I don't got a single pimple on me anymore, I got a booty as fine as J-Lo (finer if I may say so myself) and and I've gone up two cup-sizes."

"It's gonna be fun to hear you explaine how you did that to the girls in the locker room."

"Peter, I really want this, I want to help you. And I got a responsibility now, like you, to help people. I have to do it."

That was it, Peter knew he had officially lost. He couldn't argue with his Uncle Bens words. So instead he started to beat himself up.

"I... I don't get how I couldn't recognise you from the start. I mean... the similarities was... so in my face. I'm so stupid."

"No no no, Peter." She gently stroke her boyfriend over the face. "You're not stupid, you're just so... darn gullible. But that's one of the things that I love about you."

Peter just signed.

"Allright, but if you're gonna do this, then we have to make sure of some things. Come with me." By that he took MJ's hand and started to lead her away.

"Where are you taking me?"

"I'm taking you for a med check-up."

* * *

The people were quite bissy at this Midtown police station. Lawyers and prosecutors came and went. Criminals was taking in and transported between the cells and interrogation rooms. Officers, in or out of uniforms, carried mountains of paper works between on desk and another. An handcuffed man in a red wig screamed "I REMEMBER EVERYTHING!!!". One of the younger officers made a little visit to the forensic lab.

"Hey, Carlie. What's cooking?"

Carlie, a small young woman with glasses, showed him a small plastic bag with some red hair. "You know that bankrobbery? The one with the grey monster and that new hero Jackpot?"

"Yeah."

"Well, this is the only decent evidance we have from there. I'm just about to see if I can get something out of it."

"Well, do your thing. Don't let me spoil your fun."

The young officer left Carlie to do her magic. She took out every instrument she needed to extract DNA from the hair, but she didn't get the chanse to use them. Suddenly the very wall was smashed in, spreading bricks and dirt everywhere. Carlie fell to the floor, and when she looked up she saw a giant, grey, human-shaped monster standing over her.

"I belive you might be able to help me." it said with its scaring raspy voice, looking down at her with yellow eyes.

Several police men tried to came to Carlies rescue, but the creature lifted up a large desk and put it over the door, blocking the police mens only way in. It then looked back at the small female analyst, while fingering its axe.

"Yesterday I fought a young woman with red hair. I know you will have some of her hair, and I want it. Give it to me and you will survive this encounter."

Carlie lifted the plastic bag and with a shaking hand gave it to the monster."

"Is this the only ones?"

Carlie nodded.

"Good." the creature said while putting the bag in a pocket in its pants. Then the police men finally succeeded to push the desk out of their way, just in time to see the monster leap away and leave them in the mess it had created.

"My thanks to all of you, New York finest! AH-HAHAHA!"


	11. Chapter 11

Reed Richard, also known as Mr Fantastic, was looking through a microscope in his lab. He had just discovered a very interesting species of unicellular organism (he was the only one in the building that thought of it as interesting). Just as he was about to figure out the biological phylum of it a red light on his handheld computer/cell phone started to twinkle. He lifted it up from the desk and had a look. Then he dialed the first number he had on speed dial.

"Susan?" he said in it. "Could you meet me at the observation deck? It looks like we are getting visitors."

Susan Storm, aka The Invisible Woman, soon joined her boyfriend outside, where they was greeted by the two young superheroes Spider-man and Jackpot.

"Hi Peter. Nice of you not to get fried by the security systems this time."

"You knew we were coming?" Peter asked.

"I have connected the buildings sensors to my cell phone, the computer recognised your body signature from half a mile away."

"Wow, you got to fix me one of those."

"Sure, you got 54 000 dollars for the components?"

While the boys where doing the friendly chit chat, Susan was concetrated on something else.

"Oh my god. Is that you, Mary Jane?"

"Is it that obvious?" MJ asked after she took off her mask, worried that she was to easily recognizable.

"Not really. When I saw you on TV yesterday I didn't recognize you. But come on, a red headed superheroine shows up together with Spider-man, that we know have a red headed girlfriend. It's easy to connect one plus one if you got all the backstory."

"Yeah, I guess so. Let's hope all the towns criminals don't get it."

Reed stretched out his neck, startled MJ as he did it.

"Interesting. You are saying you're that new superhero everybody is talking about?" he said while reaching his head around her to get a better look of her costume.

"I'm standing here, in spandex, if that's proof enough."

"This is why we come here." Peter said. "There's a whole lot of unanswered questions in this mess, and we were hoping you guys could help us with that. Since you did it before, I mean."

Reeds head returned to his shoulders and he rubbed his chin, like he was thinking of something. "I think we can do that. Come on in and we'll run some test."

* * *

Reed and Susan lead Pete and MJ through the Baxter building, and even though they already been here a few times before, the place never ceased to amaze them.

"Now..." Sue said to them. "First, we'll put you in the bioscanner, then we do some test to see how strong you are, how fast et cetera. I also need to take some blood and urine samples from you."

MJ face frowned. "Urine...? Is that really necessarly?" she asked, and both Susan and Reed nodded. "Okay, but you better fetch me some water then."

The four heroes passed the door leading to the spare time room, where Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, known to the public as The Human Torch and The Thing, were engaged in a bloody fight. On the X-box. MJ and Peter waved at the two and said "Hi", the two Fantastic Four members however did not even looked up.

"Yeah hi Pete, hi MJ." Johnny said without taking his eyes from the TV-screen.

"Yeah hi..." Ben said, he too to much in the game.

The two more mature members of the Fantastic Four shook their heads and lead their guest further down the hallway, leaving Johnny and Ben for themself. After a minute, funny sounds could be heard as the screen changed color and showed the words Game Over, the score favoring Ben Grimm.

"Oh man, that's not fair!" Johnny bursted out. "Your guy is way faster then mine!"

"Is not, Flamebrain. You lost fair and square, so suck it."

"It's not fair, I demand a-- Wait! Was that Mary Jane?"

They both looked at the open doorway, finally reacting to the information that had reached their brains.

"If it was she sure gone Britney on us."

"My friend, this we gotta see those up-- I mean this up close."

"After you, Matchstick."

* * *

After giving them some blood and urine, Reed and Sue had Mary Jane step into the giant scanner that bombarded her with beams of light. She was sure that if she had needed glasses before she stepped in, she didn't when she stepped out. After that, they made her lift some kind barbbell, but instead of weights, the device was connected to the floor by some kind of magnets. Lifting it was hard, but not particularly heavy. It was like some invisible force tried to force it down when she lifted it. During the whole time, Peter stood in the corner with his arms crossed, being very quiet.

After the magnetic barbell, they put MJ on some kind treadmill. They hooked her up to a pulse monitor and Richard told her to run as fast as she could until he said stop. And run she did. During which, she came to realize something;

"Man I wish I'd brought a sportsbra."

"Heh, welcome to The Big Girls club, sweetie. We got meetings and cake." Susan joked, which some of the boys didn't get.

"She's kidding, right?" Johnny asked. "There's no such club, is it?" But Reed, Peter and Ben just ignored him.

When all the test where done, MJ sat on a bed in the room that where the buildings medic room.

"Okay." Reed said while facing the holographic computer screen. "I'm just gonna put in some numbers and then we just wait for the test results. It's just going to take a couple of minutes."

There was a long silence. The kind of silence when people don't really know what they should do now.

"Man, is this boring." MJ said as she finally broke the quiet. Peter just rolled his eyes.

Then Susan turned to MJ. "Can I get you anything, MJ? Anything to eat? Drink?"

"Oh yes, I'm starving. Bring me anything, and lots of it. And something to pass the time, if that's okay?"

"Sure. You want anything Peter?"

"No I'm good."

Sue then left the room. Her younger brother on the other hand, wouldn't leave the room for all in the world.

"I'm telling you, MJ, you just look awesome in that thing. Green is really your color. And the show on the treadmill, wow, really made my day."

"You're such a smooth talker, Johnny. But thanks anyway." MJ told him, both a little amused and a lot annoyed of his blarney.

"Heh. You look great on the TV too, all those acrobat moves you do. Tell me, can you do the split?"

Johnny was unobservant of the evil eye that MJ's boyfriend were giving him. Ben, being quiet and just watching the whole thing, leaned in and whispered to Pete;

"Careful, Web. If somebody won't stop 'im soon, he ask her to pose for 'im or something."

"Say MJ, you're not interesting in modeling are you? I'm somewhat of an amateur photographer..."

"There ya hav'it."

That was the last straw for Peter. "OKAY, THAT'S IT!!! Every one in here who is not a patient, dating the patient OR have at least two PhD, LEAVE!!! NOW!!!"

"What? No!"

"You heard 'im, Johnny-boy. You're coming with me."

And by that, Ben lifted Johnny up, took him under his arm and carried him out of the room. On the way out they passed Sue, carrying a invisible tray full of candy bars.

"Why does it feel like the IQ in this room just went up when he left? Here, I found this for you."

She handed MJ a handfull of bars and a bottle of water.

"Johnny is trying to get us sponsored by some energy bar company. I for one don't get it, it's just nuts, fruits and chocolate."

"If oo ine, thafs." MJ said with her mouth full.

Peter looked at his girlfriend, and he had to smile, MJ was awfully cute with her cheeks stuffed with chocolate. Susan then handed MJ a paper she brought them.

"Here. I thought you might wanna look at todays Bugle."

MJ took the paper, and just as Susan said, on the the front page she could see herself fighting the grey monster from yesterday. "A NEW MENACE IN TOWN. EXCLUSIVE PHOTO BY BEN URICH" it read under the front picture.

"Look at that, Peter. I'm the big story of today." she said as she swallowed down the nut bars with some water.

"Is that the guy that beat you up?"

"Yeah, and he's even uglier in real life. Hm, _Menace_ huh. Guess ugly-guy got himself a name now."

Peter leaned in to read over MJ's shoulder. "MJ... I think the're talking about you."

"What?!"

"Look further down. It says 'Vigilante Jackpot and her unnamed associate caused property damage worth tens of thousands of dollars. The menace of self-made heroes, such as Jackpot...' They never mention ugly-guy by a name."

MJ seemed to collapse in the bed. Her head hanged with her head and her arms went limp.

"That's just perfect. Not only do I get the beating of my life, I get pointed out as a danger to society. That Jameson, I hate him so much."

Peter put his hand on Mary Janes knee to comfort her. "Don't take it personaly, MJ. He's a jerk to everybody. You know what trash I have to put up with."

"You guys are not alone, we have taken some crap from him too." Susan joined in. "We can really do nothing but take the high road."

PING

"Aha! Here we got it." came from Reed as the display finally were done with the results. "Interesting." he continued as he read it.

"What?"

"Well, I've compared the DNA we took from you last time, after the whole clone incident you know, with the DNA you just gave us. And it is quite the big difference. Tell me Mary Jane, before you discovered your powers, did you feel sick or nauseated? Did you have any pain?"

"If I did! I thought I was gonna die."

"Mm-hm. Not surprising. Changes like this doesn't go easy on the body before they settle."

"But shes fine now, right?" Peter wondered.

"Oh yeah, she's fine. Actually, she's better. MJ, your values is through the roof."

"What does that mean?"

"It means your physiology are amazing. Your entire metabolic efficiency is greatly enhanced. You have a heighten amount of blood cells, which makes your body better at taking up nourishment and oxygen, and it seems to produce less waste products then before. The density of your bones, muscles and skin has increased, and your cells generate in a astounding speed. Not Wolverine-fast, but still pretty fast. And you seem to have an higher resistance to negative influences, such as toxins and virus. I would also guess, and I'm often right when I do, that the reason you eat so much more now is simply becouse of a much faster metabolism. It kind of go together with all this."

"Well, that's good to know."

Susan picked up a medical chart and started to read off it. "And that's not all of it. MJ, your strenght-test showed you were able to lift 3.4 metric tons. That's about 7480 pounds, roughly 660 pounds more then Peter can lift."

And Peter raised an eyebrow at this statement. "So she's stronger then me? Nice, won't hurt my male ego at all."

"Awww, cheer up Tiger." MJ said as she took held his hand. "You're still the number one macho in my book."

"Cute."

Mr Fantastic read the chart over The invisible Womans shoulder, while his right hand was still typing at the keyboard, five feets away. "But we have to remember that this is not a conclusive number. You are both young, and I do belive that you'll both grow stronger as you reach full maturity."

"Look at me, how much more mature can I get?"

Sue cleared her throat. "Let's take one thing at the time. When it comes to your reflexes, they are much superior to a normal person, but not far as good as Peters. I would say you're on the same level as Captain America, if not a tab better. Some parts of your brain seems to have evolved, especially those that handle your balance and senses."

"On the treadmill you were able to reach a speed of 42 miles per hour." Richard told. "And you were able to sustain that speed for three minutes."

"I could have gone on much longer if you hadn't told me to stop."

Peter stepped up to ask a question he had in his head all the time. "Tell me, how come she... you know... Why is she-- I mean, she's..."

"What my eloguent boyfriend here is trying to say is; Why do I look like Jessica Rabbit all the sudden?"

Reed adjusted his glasses. "Well, uh..." But Sue interrupted him.

"I'll take this, honey."

"Oh thank you. So much."

"MJ, there's a number of things that caused your body to change this much. One is that it's now storing fatcells much more efficient. Another one is that you have a heighten amount of estrogen in your systems. The scanning showed that you also have a increased numbers of _glandula mammaria_."

"Uh-huh... Which is?"

"Milk glands."

"Oh. Um, that's nice but... I don't really see the meaning of all that, other then making me look smoking hot."

"If you look at it from a survival-of-the-species point of view, it's a big deal. A more attractive body makes it easier to attract the opposite sex, ergo spreading ones genes and secure the next generation. All this just show that you are a strong, healthy person of the female gender."

MJ smiled and put her arm around Peters shoulder. "Well, this feamle don't need to attract anyone more. I've found the guy I wanna spread my genes with."

"Wait a second!" Peter broke in while braking free from MJ's arm. "It's all nice to now that my girlfriend suddenly can bench-press an SUV, and that she can sign up for Playboy or whatever. But the real questions is; WHY? How did she become like this?"

"The answer to that question must lie in her DNA chain." Reed said while facing the screen again. "I can't find any traces of the X-gene, so we can rule out the possibility that she's a mutant. I don't think-- Hold on a minute. What is this?"

He zoomed in to a few cells on the DNA helix that were slightly green. He was quiet while studying the results, all the others also went quiet too since they didn't wanted to disturb him now when he was on to something."

"I belive I have found the answer. MJ, the reason for your powers is... OZ."

"What?"

"OZ? You mean Norman-Osborn-OZ? As in Green-Goblin-OZ? Juiced-up-spider-that-bit-me-OZ?"

"Yep, and I'll tell you, I could not have found it unless I was actually looking for it. Take a look at this." The screen now showed two helix strands, looking exactly the like except for the cells that were green on one strand was red on the other. Reed pointed at the later. "See, this is before, when we thought we cured you of the OZ. And the other one is now. It seems that we didn't find a cure for you at all, it was just a antidote. It put the mutated cells to sleep instead of... unmutating them, so to speak. It looks like some external effect have caused them to mutate further, making you turn into what you are now."

Both Mary Jane and Peter looked at the display, speechless.

"But how... What do you mean external effect?"

Susan walked up to the keyboard and pulled up some more results. "Properly something she have ingested. Take a look what the computer find in her urine sample."

"Interesting. It looks like small traces of the OZ, but it seems to have been slighly altered on formula level. MJ, do you remember eating or drinking anything out of the ordinary?"

MJ shook her head.

"Then I guess someone have sneaked it into you without you knowing it. I have to to some more test to be sure."

"MJ, Peter." Susan said. "Do you know anyone else besides us that know of the OZ-formula?"

"I don't think so." Peter answered. "SHEILD have it of course. Otherwise, no one. I mean, Osborn is dead and-- Oh no! Reed!"

"What?"

"Do you think you can do me a favor? We have to call the Triskeleon and tell them we're coming over. Like, right now!"

"Okay, why?"

"Because I think I know who's responsible for this."

* * *

**AN: I'm only uploading one chapter this time, because I don't seem to be able to upload documents from my computer to this site. I'll return as soon as this been fixed.**


	12. Chapter 12

Mary Jane was still chewing down energy bars when she, Peter, and their own personal doctors, Reed and Susan, stepped into The Fantasicar and airlifted of the roof. She looked out of the flying vehicles window, seeing the skyscrapers from a rearly seen point of view.

"How can you eat NOW?" Peter asked her.

"I can't help it, I had a light meal for lunch and I'm usually home for dinner at this time. And you heard the doctor, I got a heighten metabolism."

Peter did a deep sighn and turned his face to look out the window. This sure was a nice situation he tripped into.

"You don't really think it's him, do you?" MJ asked. "I mean, how could it? He's in jail."

"It has to be him. He's the only one capable of doing something like this."

Very soon, the flying car reached its destination; The Triskelion, headquarter of SHIELD, the largest law-enforcement in the world. The vehicle landed on the giant buildings roof, next to a pair of parked helicopters. As the two superhero pilots and their superhero passangers stepped out of the car, they were greeted by a woman in trenchcoat and sunglasses.

"Mister Parker. Long time no seen, huh?"

"Agent Carter... Yeah, it sure been a long time. And to be honest, I haven't really missed you."

"I'm not blaming you. And I guess this charming young woman most be Jackpot. You sure have giving me a hell of paperwork to do, Miss."

"Sorry about that."

"Meh. It happens every time a new hero pops up, which is almost on daily basis in this town. Come with me."

The four heroes followed the female agent down some stairs and through a corridor. MJ leaned in towards Peter and whispered;

"Do you think she know about me?"

"I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised if someone here at SHIELD does. Don't worry about it, these guys have some kind of professional secrecy or something."

Agent Carter lead the group through another door, where they passed several security guards.

"Director Danvers wouldn't have approve this unless Mister Richard had explained to her it was a matter of national security. We know the Mister Fanstasic don't joke about this kind of stuff. Young Mister Storm on the other hand... Anyway, I got really happy when she gave me this order. Even babysitting you guys beats doing deskjobs all day.

Soon the group came to a door where Agent Carter stopped walking.

"He's in there. But I don't expect him to talk much."

She slowly opened the door, revealing a small room only enlightened by a single lamp. Apart from a camera in the corner of the roof, the only things in this room was a table and a chair. And on that chair sat a man in bowlcut hair and sunglasses, his hands in plastic handcuffs. Doctor Otto Octavius.

* * *

"Mister Parker! And what gives me the honor?"

"You know damn well what this is about, Otto!"

The amazing Spider-man removed his mask, there was no need to keep up with the secret identity in here. He moved closer to the criminal, anger filling him.

"You're gonna tell me how you got my girlfriend full of OZ and you're gonna tell me right NOW!"

Doctor Octopus first looked at the angry young man with confusion, then he looked the young girl that had followed him, and he opened his mouth in a wide, amused, smile.

"Oh my god. This is amazing! This is a course of events that I did not forsee! Miss Watson, was it?"

MJ rolled her eyes, this was quickly getting annoying.

"What, you didn't know of her changes?" Reed Richard asked.

Otto's smile grow from amused to sinister. "How could I know of it? I am locked up here. I did see young Miss Watson on the television, but I did not understand it was her until just now. I would guess that you people already have studied her transformation, am I far off if I guess that you found OZ in her test results, Doctor Richard?"

"Um... No, you're... You're quite on the spot."

Peter stared at the evil scientist, and if looks could kill, Otto's head would blew off.

"Octavius, you are the only one left who know about the OZ! What did you do to Mary Jane!?!"

"Oh please. I thought you were smart, Parker. I can't do anything in here."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?!"

Peter flew up and lifted the man in the collar of his orange prisonsuit, letting his feets dangle a feet over the ground. Not until Mary Jane put her hand on Peters shoulder did he put him down.

"As I said..." Otto said as he sat down in the chair, clearing his throat. "My wish was not to have Miss Watson become another super-pain in my butt. I can not be held responsible for her changes. Actually, I'm surprised to see it's her, and not Parker, having mutated."

"What? What do you mean her but not me!?!"

"Your wish?" Susan said. "What were you hoping to accomplish?"

"What did you do, Octavius?!" Agent Carter asked, much more serious then Susan but not as serious as Peter.

"What I did? I did nothing. All I did was calculating a new form of the OZ-serum. I am that smart. One could assume that, someone somehow have getting hold of this new experimental formula and have started to spread it out in the public. Just to mess with YOU, Spider-man."

Peter gritted his teeth and Agent Carter mumbled "You bastard." at the evil mastermind.

"The result of the new formula could not be predeterminated, since it is such a remarkable drug. The results could have been further mutations, grotesque ones, or nothing at all. I, for one, would have hoped for the former."

Reed stepped in, what Octavius said really made him worried. "Do you realize that you may have poisoned the entire population of this town?"

"As I already said, I have done nothing. You don't have any proofs. Besides, what do I care for the low-lifes of this city? And the new formula don't work that way anyway, it was constructed to only affect people who already been treated by the OZ-serum. Apparently it only had affects on dormant OZ-cells, however. Not something one suspected."

Peter put his face really close to Otto's. "You evil bastard! You tried to get to me and instead you ended up messing up MJ! That's what happen'd, isn't it!?!"

That sinister gleam returned to Doc Ock's eyes. "I repeat, you don't have any proofs. You have nothing against me. But I can tell you this; Anything that makes you feel miserable, really keeps me warm in my cold prison cell, Parker."

The anger in Peters chest sank and turned into despair, so he left the room. MJ, who had been quiet the whole time, followed him soon after. This very room was giving her the creeps, so it was not hard to belive what its residents did to her.

"Take good care of your girlfriend, Parker!" Otto yelled after them, almost laughing. "We don't want her to end up like your uncle!"

* * *

"That guy most be the most evil jerk who ever walked this earth." MJ said, but Peter did not listen to her at first. "Peter? Are you okay?"

"I should ask you the same question."

"I'm fine. Upset and angry, yeah, but otherwise fine."

"MJ, I don't think you are taking this seriously enough."

"I AM taking this seriously. I just don't get all fizzed up about it like you. Peter, he tried to turn you into some kind of freaky monster but ended up giving me superpowers. This whole thing could have gone a whole lot worse."

"I guess so." Peter sighned. "It's just... How much more crap do we have to take from scumbags like him?"

"I don't know, sweetie. I don't know."

Soon Carter, Reed and Sue joined the two teenagers. Susan shaked her head at them.

"We can't get anything usefull from him."

"He's to smart." Reed filled in. "He know we can't get to him. And it's not like we can threaten him with something, not with him already behind bars."

"Could someone please explain to me what's going on?!" Carter yelled out. The whole situation was getting on her nerves.

"Well, far as I can tell..." Reed said. "Doc Ock have made a new kind of OZ-formula and was trying to use it on Peter. Just for the sake of messing up his life. It did not however work the way he expected to, and Mary Jane ended up having superpowers instead."

Susan scratched her haid. "What I don't get is how he got it in her."

"According to the guards the slimeball have had a guest here, off records, who showed up a few times the last three weeks. I'm gonna check with the surveillance system to see if we got a face we can look for." Carter said.

Peter then turned to Carter. "Why do you let him do that? How come you haven't strapped a straitjacket on him and put him under a big rock for, like, forever!?"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! If it was up to me, that guy would had got the chair! But the bureaucrats at Washington wants that big brain of his on their side, so there's nothing we can do. Hopefully, if we can nail his accomplicement, we might be able get to him."

"Until then we have to find out how they got the OZ out in public." Richard said. "To make sure that Peter would take it in, he most have spread it out over a large area. Like through the water or maybe the food. We should check things out in your neighbourhood and your school."

Susan put her hand on Mary Janes shoulder. "Listen. You two have had enough hard time as it is. Why don't we get you home, so can you guys relax while we do the rest, okay?"

MJ nodded, it did sounded good in her ears.

"Reed, listen..." Peter said, his face describing several feelings such as despair and frustration. "Do you think... Do you think you ever be able to cure MJ?"

MJ was taken back, her jaw opened wide. She couldn't belive what Peter just said, right in front of her too.

"I-I-I don't know." Reed answered. "I couldn't really cure her the first time, the OZ has such a complex structure. It could take me months, if not years."

"But we better take it one thing at the time." Susan stepped in, seeing the expression on MJ's face. "She should just let Mary Jane be as she is for now. God knows what will happen if we start to tamper with her genes."

Reed started to lead the two youngsters back to the Fantasicar. "Come, I'll give you guys a ride home."

* * *

Reed and Susan dropped of MJ and Pete not to far away from their homes. There was an awkward silence between the two youngsters for several minutes. Peter mostly looked at his feets.

"Peter, you don't have to beat yourself up like this. It is not your fault."

"Oh yeah? So why does it feels like it?"

"Because you blame yourself for every little thing. You probably say the global warming is your fault too."

"Ha. It wouldn't surprise me if that is the case."

MJ took her boyfriends hand in her own and moved closer to him. "You know what would make you feel better, Tiger? You and me busting some no-life criminals, together. You can help me with my hero training."

"I'm sorry, MJ. But I just... I just don't feel like it right now. It has been a long day, I have homework to do and a lot of things to take in. Can't it wait 'til tomorrow?"

"I guess it can."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then."

Peter gave Mary Jane a kiss on the cheek and jumped away over a roof. MJ looked at the last energy bar she held in her hand, and for some reasons she wasn't hungry anymore.

* * *

Octavius sat down in his prison cell. He too had much to think about.

_"This has been a must interesting turn of events. The fact that Parker have not been affected by the OZ but his girlfriend instead was an surprising equation. But for now for I have much more worriyng matters to deal with then Spider-man's 'booty call'. Some one else out there have the OZ-serum, and whoever it is, he's making a mockery out me and my work. Next time I see Mr Gonzales, he better answer some of MY questions."_


	13. Chapter 13

The next day, after school, Peter sat in his attic and tried to think as little as possible about yesterday. But everytime he started to think about something else, his mind slipped back to OZ, Doc Ock, MJ's new powers and everything else. Right now he tried to focus on some small thing he was building, but even that didn't help.

Peter couldn't remeber the last time he felt like this. He felt betrayed. Betrayed by the woman he love. It was unthinkable for him how could have MJ had lied to him and kept something this big from him, especially since he told him everything.

"Hey... What are you doing?"

MJ's head showed up in the stairs, Peter put the thing he was doing to the side.

"Oh... Hi Mary Jane. Didn't hear you come in."

"Aunt May let me in. Peter, you didn't say a word in school today. Is everything okay."

"I'm fine, I just couldn't sleep last night. I had some bad dreams."

"I know the feeling."

MJ kissed Peter on his cheek, but he didn't respond, he just looked straight out in front of him. It ached in MJ's heart to see him like this.

"So, um... What is it you're doing, Tiger?"

"This? Just some stuff I've been working on. I did tell you about that science fair at the Empire State University I visited, that time you visited your aunt?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there was this crazy guy there who claimed that the government could control our brain waves using radiosignals. He had his own booth and all."

MJ raised her left eyebrow. "Control our brain waves? He seriously belived that?"

"Yep. He had voluntares sit down and used some machine to try to control these peoples brains with. To prove that it's possible."

"Did it work?"

"Nope. Well... Not until I sat down."

MJ got a look of surprise in her face. "You mean it actually worked on you?"

"Kinda. That radio wave thing made my spider-sense go off. I jumped up and started to look around for stuff that could be dangerous, but I found nothing. It kind of freaked the guy out, even he was surprised that the machine worked."

"So... What does that mean?"

"Well, I thought about it, and I think that machine send out radio waves that stimulate the part of my brain that handle my spider-sense, or something."

"Uh-huh..."

MJ sat down on the old couch Aunt May kept in the attic. Peter then passed her a small mechanical device, not unlike a microchip, but with several small leg like things sticking out of it.

"So I made this. I logged into that guy's website, and found out how he made that signal-thingy. Then I made it smaller."

"Wow, you really are smart. But what is it good for?"

"I thought that if I could make it stick on a bad guy, I would be able to track them if I got close enough."

"Wow. That's really clever."

"I thought so too. Anything to make this job easier."

"It even looks like a little spider."

"Really? Yeah, look at that, you're right."

MJ got up from the couch and kneeled down next to Peter's chair, making them sit face to face.

"Speaking of this '_job_'. Are you ready to take me out on a night of superheroing?"

"I'm not in the mood, MJ."

"Oh come on! You promised."

"I don't recall promising anything."

"Fine! Then I do it without you."

MJ got up, lifted up her backpack and pulled out her Jackpot-costume. She then started to pull off her sweater.

"MJ, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm changing clothes. Do you mind turning around for a moment?"

Peter sighed and wheeled his chair around a 180 degrees. After a short while, MJ tapped him on the shoulder. When Pete turned around she stood in front of him, dressed in her crime-fighting outfit.

"Disco pants, MJ? Seriously?"

"Oh don't be a bore, Pete. I like my outfit, it... it makes me feel sexy."

"It's not the suit that makes it, it's just you."

"Well thank you, Mister Parker."

"Heh, weight problem my ass. What did the girls said after gym today?"

"Oh yeah, there was an awkward moment there in the locker room. Lots of gasp and awe. Some of them even asked if I had plastic surgery, but I told them I just had a kind of growth spurt, and I think they fell for it. You know, I think I made Amanda drool there."

Peter rolled his eyes. "I guess that answer all the rumours about her."

MJ walked up to the window, and when she tried to open it, Peter flew up to his feets.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get out of here so I can go do hero-stuff."

"You really are serious about this, aren't you?"

"Of course I am. Why do you think I made this thing in the first anyway?"

Peter sigh again. Something he did often now these days he recalled.

"Okay then. If it's that important to you, I'll take you out to train. At least I can keep you from hurting yourself."

Mary Jane jumped Peter and gave him a big hug. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou! I promise you wont regret it! We're gonna have so much fun!"

And Peter sigh again.

* * *

Jackpot jumped off Spider-mans back and adjusted her hair from the tangle it had ended up in after the webswinging.

"It's not that I don't like riding piggyback on you, honey. But I think it would be easier if you made me my own webshooters."

"OH NO! No no. These things cost a fortune to make, you have to fix that for yourself. Besides, webbing are for spider-people only. The union demands that you have a arachno based name and image before you become allowed use it."

The female hero smirked. "Then maybe we should get our own crime fighting car instead. Like the Batmobile, only more stylish."

"Neither of us have a drivers license."

"It doesn't have to be an actual car. Maybe something smaller, like a motorcycle or a dune buggy."

"Like... a Spider-buggy?"

"Or a Jackpot-bike. You can sit in the sidecar."

"Now that's a picture for you. Can we get back to buisness now?"

"Sure. So, what are we doing here?"

The young girl looked out over the edge of the rooftop where they had landed, and it was not one of the most safest neighbbourhoods.

"There's a gang of small-time street thugs that hangs aroung here. I swing by here sometimes to catch them doing something not-so-legal. Nothing yet, but today I might have more luck."

"Then consider me your very own lucky charm. Doesn't that look like something?"

Spidey looked over the same edge, and on the street he saw several guys loading several heavy crates from a van into the building.

"It is something allright. Come, let's check it out."

The two heroes found a window on the top floor that they could sneak in through. Inside they moved silently down floor by floor until they could hear voices. The first floor was a large workshop with a high ceiling with several lamps hanging down and a lot of beams supporting it. Perfect for two sneaky teenagers to eavesdrop on a gang of law breakers. They climbed into position above the street gang and listened.

"Man, this is heavy." one of the criminals said while putting down the last crate. "Hope this wort it."

"Sure it is. With these things we're gonna make our name in this town."

Peter counted the thugs to be nine, none of them seemed armed, but he started to have an idea what was in those crates.

One of the guys took a crowbar and opened up one crate. He then took out a Uzi gun and showed it to his pals. Peter then realized it was time to take action, so he nodded to MJ and pointed, as to say "That's our cue."

The thug was just about to load the Uzi when it disappeared from his hands, pulled away from his grip by a line of web. To the group of criminals big surprise, two superheroes appeared down from the ceiling.

"Oh shit!" several of the thugs said all at once.

"Okay, if any of you doesn't know by this time..." the female superhero in green and gold said. "This is The Amazing Spider-man, and I am The Fabulous Jackpot."

"Fabulous?" The young spider-hero uttered.

"You think I should have gone with Astonishing?"

"Maybe. Can we focus here? We're supposed to spank these guys in the butt."

"Oh yeah, sorry. Line up for the spanking, fellas."

Then, total chaos broke out. Seven of the gang members tried to beat up the two heroes before they got beat up themself, but they got so disapointed. The two last ones tried to run away, but they got stopped by some webbing nailing them to floor. Jackpot ducked from the thugs punches and swings easily, though she was a little jealus how much more easy it seemed for her boyfriend, having his spider-sense and all.

"You know, I'm really glad we're doing this, sweetie." she said.

"Huh? Me?" one of the thugs said.

"No, not you." Jackpot said, before she threw him across the room.

"Sure, but take it easy on the 'sweetie' stuff, okay?" Spider-man answered while punching one guy in the face.

"Why?"

"I don't think it's comfortable talking saying it in front of these guys."

"Oh honey. You haven't been comfortable since you were six." she said while punching another guy in the guts.

"There's a reason for that."

One guy tryed to run, but Spider-man shot a webline to his back and yanked back, making him fly backwards. He stopped first when he connected with Jackpots outreached arm, making him look like a stupid bird colliding with a thick tree branch.

MJ moved in towards the last guy she had on her side, when he surprised her and made her fall down, landing on her butt.

"I'm not going back to jail!!!" the crook yelled, and took out a handgun from his inside pocket.

Spidey saw the gun in the corner of the eye when he had knocked his last guy unconcious.

"MARY JANE!!!"

BANG

MJ rolled to the side, out of the bullets way, in the last second. She then thrown herself up, grabbed the pistol in her hand and squeezed as hard as she could. The weapon turned into a piece of art one could put in front of the UN building. The short second it took for the guy to get what just happen'd, was all MJ needed to finish him off.

"Hello? Secret identity, remember?" she said to Pete while lifting up the knocked out thug with one hand.

"Sorry. Knee-jerk reaction. I haven't got use to calling you 'Jackpot' yet."

The spider-clad hero started to web the criminals up and hang them from the roof, while Jackpot took a look in the crates.

"Whoa! There's enough guns in here to take on a army. It was good we took them down in time or this could gone really ugly.

"Yeah, we were lucky."

"What do you mean lucky? We're GOOD, that's it."

Peter hanged up the last crook, and brushed off the dirt from his hands. "Getting a little cocky, are we, Miss Jackpot?"

"I think we have the right to be cocky, Mister Spider-man. So, what are we suppose to do now?"

"Well, I think we should make an anonymous call to the police so they can lock these guys up. Do you have your cell phone with you?"

"Oh, sorry. No pockets."

"Darn. Guess I'll have to take out of my lunch money again."

* * *

A bit later, a pair of jewel store robbers where hanging from a lamppost, and one of them had a little hard time accepting reality.

"This can't be happening! This can't be happening!"

"Oh would you stop it." Jackpot said while looking up at them, arms crossed. "God, you whine more the FOX-news. Wait, I take that back. No one whines more then FOX-news."

"Heh, that was funny." her boyfriend told her.

"Thank you. I learned from watching the master."

The female hero hopped up on her male partners back and they were soon up on a roof.

"Admit it." MJ said.

"Admit what?"

"Admit that you had fun today. I can hear it in the tone of your voice."

Peter rolled his eys behind his mask. "Fine, I admit. I had fun with you today."

"Yes! I told we would have a great time. Hey, did you hear what that guy said about me?"

"Not really. Was it something about your suit?"

"He said 'I won't be taken down by some girl in a skanky outfit'. You don't think I look skanky, do you?"

Peter squirmed a little bit. "Not really. It's just... It just doesn't leave much to the imagination."

MJ put her hands to on her hips and looked at Peter like he wasn't realizing something every one else could see.

"Look who's talking."

"What do you mean?"

"Dude, you are wearing skin tight spandex over your entire body."

"Dudette, I have to. It's to reduce the air resistance."

"If you say so. I'm just surprised you haven't got athletes foot over your entire body. I'm telling you, I won't kiss you if you look like a leper."

"Oy."

The two teenagers sat on the edge of the building looking out over the city, things seemed to have quiet down now. They had removed their maskes and shuffled really closed.

"You know, it's really nice here when there's no one trying mugg you."

"Mm-hm, it has it's ups. Say, how about getting back home? We can continue patrolling tomorrow." Peter asked.

"Yeah. I think I could use a shower. You wanna come over and maybe watch a movie at my place later?"

"Yes gladly."

They got up on their feets, but instead of jumping up on his back, MJ wrapped her arms around Peters waist.

"What are you doing?" Peter asked her.

"I just wanna say thanks. I had a great time today, Tiger."

"I'm glad your happy. I had a great time too."

They gave eachother an eskimo kiss, then Peter lifted up MJ in his arms and carried her away like he were Tarzan and she was Jane.

"All aboard the Spidey-express. Next stop; French-town and Makeout-ville"


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: When I read the reviews I have to say that some times you guys seem to read my mind, other times not. That's quite funny. I also want to point out about our main characters strenght which I gave a number on earlier, I don't know exactly how much Spider-man can lift in the main comics but I do know that Ultimate Spidey is a little weaker then him, being younger and all. So I just came up with a number that sounded reasonable, and I did mention that both Spidey and Jackpot would become stronger as they grow older. Besides, strenght-level usually change up and down depending on the writer.**

When at school, MJ couldn't help to think every one were looking at her. And she was right, because the word had spread quickly. Some of her classmates had talked about MJ's new anatomy to their friends, and by now, every kid in school knew about it, and they wanted to check out for themselves. Luckily Mary Jane was wearing a baggy shirt and carried her books close to her chest so no one outside her class could tell the difference on her upperbody, but that was unfortunatetly not the case on her backside. Her derriére caused all the guys to stare and all the girls to say mean stuff behind her back, and the fact that her blue jeans were tighter around her now more feminine curves did not help. She felt so embarrassed, being eye-candy for every one.

The last hour before lunchbreak was warm, actually hot, the sunrays was broiling through the windows. MJ looked at her left and saw Peter with his nose down, busy taking notes after their teachers words. She bit the end of her pencil, Peter was looking so good in that light. Images was starting to pop up in her head, and not G-rated ones. She imaged Peter taking his shirt of, showing off his pecs and those gorgeous arm-muscles of his. She felt a tingle move through her body and she instinctivly grabbed hold of her desk with her right hand. In her head, Peter was now only wearing his briefs, and he was standing on the beach. No, in a waterfall, moving his hands through his wet hair. She imaged moving closer to him, letting her hands move over his iron hard muscles. She took a firmer grip of the desk. Pete layed his hands on her hips and started to gently caress the lower part of her back while their lips met in a kiss. He then moved one of his hands and let it slowly slide inside her--

KRACK

Everybody in class turned their heads towards MJ. They, and she, were shocked to see that she held one big piece of her desk in her hand. AND she had bit off the top of of her pencil.

"Miss Watson, what just happen'd?" the teacher asked.

"Um... I don't know, Mister Hershach. It just... broke off." MJ answered after spitting out the pencil eraser.

"By it self?"

"Y-yeah. I mean... I just in leaned against it and it broke."

Mr Hershach shaked his head. "Just go down to the janitor office and see if they can get you a new one. And don't try to lean this one broken the first thing you do."

MJ then had to do the walk of shame out of the classroom, even though most her classmates didn't think there was anything to be shamefull about it. It sure was strange but nothing to be ashamed of. MJ on the other hand was so glad they didn't went to the same class as a mind-reader.

* * *

"I feel so embarrassed." MJ said as she and the man of her fantasy finally left class for lunch.

"Tell me about it." Peter said as he took out his lunch packet. "My powers made me brake two desk in one week. And one school locker."

They took their seat at their regular spot, at the top of the football bleachers. At least there they were free from any ogling eyes. Peter had a simple lunch with a sandwich and a coke, but MJ had brought a small fast food restaurant. A one foot hero sandwich (no pun intended) with extra everything, some of her mothers macaroni and cheese with small bits of bacon in it, an apple and a pepsi to drink.

"Wow. That's incredible." Peter said as his girlfriend finished her last bite.

"What? I didn't gross you out, did I?" MJ said after she rinsed down her food with the soft drink.

"No, I'm just amazed. How do you fit everything into that flat stomach of yours?"

"I burn it quickly. Don't you eat a lot too?"

"Yeah, but I tend to eat smaller portions more often. If I didn't, we could both be having an orgie every lunch."

MJ raised one eyebrow. "Don't give me ideas, Tiger."

"So..." Peter said. "You wanna tell me what really happen'd in there?"

"Oh that." MJ said as her blood started to travel to her face, making it match her hair. "I don't know if I wanna tell."

"Come on. We tell eachother everything, right?"

MJ sighed. "I kind of... you know... had daydreams. About you. In a... you know, adult way."

Peter first didn't understand what MJ meaned, but it finally came to him, he started to laugh.

"Oh my god. Hahaha... That's incredible."

"It's not that funny." MJ said. "I made a fool out of myself."

"No, it's just... Oh come on, that IS funny. And I have to say, a little flattering."

MJ just looked down at her feets.

"You know, now when we're being honest, and on the subject, I have to tell you something." Peter told her.

"What?"

"Before, you know, when I didn't know you were Jackpot... I kind of... Boy, this is a little more awkward then I thought."

MJ looked at him with a sense of wondering. "Peter, what are you talking about?"

"I think I... I had a crush on Jackpot."

Now it was MJ's turn to laugh.

"I knew it!" she bursted out.

"You knew?"

"Yeah, I noticed it in the way you acted around me when we were in costume. You acted the same way when we first got together."

"Uh-huh..."

MJ leaned back on her bleacher and smiled. "I can't believe I made you fall in love with me twice, that's hilarious."

"Well, yeah, now afterwards I'm just glad it was you after all. I felt so guilty, having all these unfaithful thoughts like some two-timing snake. I can't believe I did that."

"You want to know what I believe, Tiger?" MJ said as she friendly bumped her shoulder against Peter. "I believe you're thinking with your little _webshooter._"

"Wha... my what?"

"Your little _webshooter._ You know."

"Oh... Now that's a euphemism I rather not think about. Besides, my webbing is synthetic, not organic."

"I'm glad for that, otherwise that would mean you have been spreading your body fluids all over town."

Peter was just to give a snappy comeback, when they both heard an army of sirens passing by their school. Enough police cars to support a small country drove by in great speed.

"Oh my god... What was that about?" MJ asked.

"I don't know. But I think we should go and check it out." Peter told her.

"But... we have class in thirty-five minutes."

"Can't help it, we have to go. Come, we need to change somewhere."

"I think the girls locker room is empty by now."

"Then come on!"

* * *

"You sure no one saw us?" MJ asked as they sneaked into the locker room.

"I think so. Huh, so this is how the girls locker room looks like. Smells much better then the boys."

Peter pulled out his suit from his bag and started to get dressed, meanwhile MJ took her bag and stepped into the ladies room.

"MJ, what are you doing?" Peter asked as he put on his pants.

"I don't feel like stripping in front of you." MJ's voice came from inside the lavitory.

"Okay, but hurry."

Peter waited outside the door for a short while, but when you're in a hurry, even that little time seems like forever.

"Hurry up, MJ!"

"Okay okay! I'm coming, I'm not as used to this phone booth changing like you are. There, done."

MJ stepped out of the toalet fully dressed in her costume.

"Come." Peter said. "We have to sneak out that window, otherwise someone might see us."

They climbed out the window and got up on the gym roof. From there the two young heroes quickly swinged away towards whatever awaited them.

* * *

The two teenager landed on a street that was almost totally demolished. There were large holes through the buildings, cars (both police and civilians) had either been crushed or thrown upside down, a fire hydrant had been turned into a fountain and people was heard screaming not far away.

"Oh my god!" said Jackpot. "Who could have done this!?"

Spider-man looked down on the ruined road and noticed something familiar in the concrete, namely giant footprints.

"Oh no... MJ!"

"What?"

Peter held MJ by the shoulders and looked straight at her. "MJ, I want you to stay out of this one."

"What!?!"

"You gotta trust me, this is not going to be a walk in the park. You could get seriously hurt."

"So can you!" MJ almost yelled. "I'm not leaving you just to sit on first row and watch you get killed!"

"But MJ--"

"I said I'm staying with you." she interrupted him. "And there's no way you can talk me out of it."

Peter took a deep breath before saying anything else. "Okay... You can come. But you gotta do as I say, okay? If I say hide, you hide. If I say run, you run, okay?"

"Okay."

The two of them jumped further down the street, and now gunshots could be heard.

"I can't believe you tried to talk me out of this." MJ said as they kept moving.

"Oh give it a rest. Don't get you panties in a knot." Pete said.

"Actually, I'm not wearing panties."

"What? Why not?"

"I took them off when I changed."

Spidey looked at his partner, his mask hiding the weird look he gave her. "Why?"

"Because my regular ones chafe when I'm wearing this. I tried to change into the more comfortable ones back there but you rushed me."

"Oy."

Suddenly a police car came flying over their heads. They both ducked out of harms way before the vehicle took ground. Then something even bigger came charging towards them. The giant thing smashed several cars and sent police men fleeing, then it stopped to take a look of the two newly arrived heroes. When it stood up, one could see what it really looked like. This thing looked like a man in a giant mechanical rhino-suit. Standing eight feet tall, the behemoth towered over the two small heroes, shadowing them as it looked down upon them.

"Okay..." Jackpot said. "I think I just lost bladder control."

* * *

Across town, in a apperantly abandon warehouse, Vincent Gonzales were bissy doing the only thing he cared about. He filled a needle with dangerous subjects and injected it in his arm. As the empty needle fell to the floor, Vincent's mind left his body. He fell back in a chair, his pupils unnormally dilated and a wide smile on his lips as he started to guffaw. In his spaced out condition, he didn't notice that Doctor Hollister entered the room, carrying a briefcase.

The blond woman shook her head at the man in front of her.

"Pathetic." she said to no one particular.

She picked up a bucket from the floor and poured some water into it from a tap. She then emptied the bucket over Gonzales, who screamed from the shock of the cold water breaking his drug spell.

"Doc? Wha-what are y-you doing h-here?" he said, the water shocking him into half a sober condition.

"You truly are pathetic, Gonzales." Hollister said. "Growing up in the worst of neighbourhoods, you still manage to take yourself all to police school, you could have been somebody. But what happen? You get kicked out and sent to jail, and for what? Drog abuse! And now you have become what you was trying to fight, truly pathetic."

Gonzales, still not entirely down to earth, only managed to slur in response.

"Wha... wha-wha..."

"Do you know what this is, Vincent?" the woman said while holding something up for Gonzales to see. It was a small plastic bag, containing some red hair.

"It... it looks like..." Gonzales slurred out.

"It's hair, Vincent." Hollister said. "But it is not just any hair. This hair have traces of OZ in it, it has OZ in its DNA. Tell me, Vincent, how come there is an OZ-powered superheroine running around in this town?"

"I... uh, it..."

"I tell you how." Hollister continued. "Because you were stupid enough to actually do as that lunatic Octavius told you! You made that restructured formula, despite the fact that I told you not to, and you spread it out in public and endanger'd my plans! You pathetic little excuse for a human being!!!"

There was a twitch in Gonzales' blue eye, while his brown kept staring out into space. The blond doctor turned around, put her briefcase on a table and opened it.

"You have become to much of a risk for me and my employer, Vin. And we can't have that. I'm afraid I have to '_take care'_ of you before you ruin anything else."

Ther was something inside Vincent Gonzales that finally broke. Maybe it was the drugs in his system, maybe he was tired of being talked down to by this bitch, or maybe he just didn't like the term '_take care'_. When Dr Hollister had her back against him, he grabbed a steel pipe laying on the floor and swinged it against her head.

Hollister's hand grabbed Gonzales' arm with lightning fast speed and twisted it, making him drop the pipe and fall to his knees in pain.

"You are an idiot, Gonzales!" Hollister said, this time in a much darker and raspier voice, while her eys turned yellow and her arm went from silk-smooth tan to scaly grey.

She grabbed the drug addict by the throat with her other hand and lifted his body up in the air. She pressed him against the wall and started to squeeze his throat harder. He gasped for air and tried to fight his way free, but her grip was to hard. Soon he passed out from the lack of oxygen. Hollister dropped him, checked his pulse to see that he was still alive, then he turned back to her briefcase while her body changed back to its normal.

"Let's do an experiment, shall we?" she asked the unconscious junkie. "You know, Vin. The OZ is really a remarkable drug. I'm sure you know that it could give someone superpowers, but did you know that it also depends on the situation? The serum itself is constantly evolving, always seeking a way to adapt to the body it's inhabitating. So the scientist in me are asking; What would happen if we inject it in a body that already have another drug in its system? You don't mind voluntare as guinea pig, do you? It's not like you're afraid of needles."

She pulled out an empty needle from the briefcase, sticked it into a phial filled with a orange liquid and draw out some of the liquid into the needle. She then kneeled down over the knocked out Gonzales, bringing the needle closer to the vein in his arm.

"You have always been, and will always be, a freak, Vincent."


	15. Chapter 15

Spider-man grabbed Jackpot and jumped high up in the air, making them both avoid a clenched fist from a 8 feet tall rhino-man. Spidey put his female partner down on the street and immediatly jumped back at the giant beast to start pounding on him. Jackpot soon followed him. While the Rhino was bissy trying to whisk away her partner, she ran up and delivered a punch to the creatures side. The beast's hard metal skin made it hurt her fist just as much as it hurt the mechanic animals body.

"Ouch!" Jackpot cried out. "What is this thing made of?"

"Mar-- Jackpot! Look out!" Spider-man yelled at her, almost using her real name.

Jackpot dodged out of the way of the Rhinos punch, the creature making a small crater in the street as it missed her. The giant thing was fast, but it reacted slower then its hero opponents and it was easy to tell what it was trying to do when it launched at you. MJ had to try really hard to not lose her focus, if she paniced she would be smashed into a puddle. But as long as she kept her head in it, the big brute couldn't touch her. The two teenager also had another advantage, they were two of them. They quickly found out that one of them could move in and hit the beast, drawing its attention while the other moved out of its reach, then they shifted. It was a kind of hit-and-run tactic. As much as this seemed to let them avoid any major damage, there was a big disadvantage. The Rhino seemed to never tire himself out.

"I don't know how much I can keep this up!" Jackpot yelled when she ducked for cover as her boyfriend leaped in and started to whack the thing over its face. She wasn't tired yet, but she could feel a pearl of sweat move down her face.

"I know, we have to find some other solution!" Spider-man yelled back at her as he punched the Rhino over the head without any bigger results.

Spidey then jumped out of reach and let Jackpot move in. She ripped up a lamppost and hit the giant beast over its back with it. When it turned around she noticed that it had only managed to anger it further, much to her own fear. She manged to avoid a giant foot coming stomping down upon her, but she did not see the giant fist rushing down over her head.

Spider-man shot out a web-line that attached itself to Jackpot's suit. He then pulled her towards him with amazing speed, yanking her out the Rhino's reach before it managed to punch her into the ground.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah, just a little caught off guards. Look out, here he comes again!" Jackpot pointed out.

The giant Rhino came charging against them at top speed. Spider-man saw this coming and sent a glob of web flying.

THWIP

The webbing hit the monster in his face and covered its eyes, blinding him. He screamed out of anger and surprise, then he tripped. He fell to the ground with a big racket, digging a ditch in the ground as his face met it.

"Huh." Spidey said after he and Jackpot had jumped back from impact. "Maybe I should had yelled 'Timber'."

The berserking behemoth slowly pushed itself up on its legs while trying to tear off the web from its face. Then Jackpot ran against it.

"Hey! HEY!!! Where are you going?!" Spider-man yelled after her.

Jackpot jumped up upon the enormous thing's back and grabbed its horn. The Rhino tried to shake her off but she held on to the horn for all she could.

"Hi-ho Silver! Away!" she screamed while riding that thing like it was a mechanical bull.

The Rhino, in desperation, run straight forward, hoping to shake off the superheroine. But blinded as he were by Spider-man's webbing, he did not see that he were running directly against a building. Jackpot did however see it, a little to late.

"Uh-oh..."

* * *

Vincent Gonzales awoken with a scream.

"AAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

He had pain over his entire body, he sweated like crazy and his stomach was upset like never before. He rolled over to his knees, clenching his stomach as he was trying to squeeze the pain out. He stumbled up on his legs and tried to walk towards the bathroom. He tripped and fell down as all he lost control of his limbs. He did managed to drag himself to the bathroom, and heave himself up on the toilet sink. As he succeded to get up on his legs, he felt a great convulsion in his stomach, and he thrown his head over the sink as everything he had in his stomach came up through his throat. After he finally had trown up whatever he had eaten today, he tried to wash his face with water, only to notice that the sink was slowly disappearing.

His vomited stomach fluids was eating up the sink like some highly corrosive acid. It looked like something out of the movie _Alien._

"Wha-What is happening?"

He then looked at his reflection in the mirror in front of him and was shocked at the image he saw. His eyes had changed colors, his left eye was yellow and his right were red, like those of a different animal each.

"God! What is happening to me!?!"

* * *

The gigantic Rhino came smashing out of the other side of the building as easily as through Lego. And Jackpot were still hanging on to its back. Luckily, the building was empty as they had now entered a neighbourhood that was due for rebuilding, and therefore been emptied. The few construction workers that were still there fled as they saw that giant thing coming.

Jackpot was just about to jump of the stampeding juggernaut when she felt a huge hand grab her arm. The raging monster lifted her up in the air and stared at her as he finally had freed himself from the web. MJ looked back at the Rhino's face, terrified and moaning in pain as she hanged in her own arm. She kicked her capturer over the chin as hard as she could, thought it did little damage to him. Intead, he punched her right into her stomach with his free hand. MJ screamed as she flied far away, for one second she knew she would smash into the side of a buidling, but instead she landed softly in a safety net made out of spider web.

She rolled out of the web and landed on the ground. She felt like hell, her stomach hurt like crazy and tears spilled out of her eyes. When she looked at her hands, she saw that they were shaking heavily. Not only were they shaking, but her fingertips had turned into what looked like claws, making holes in the fingers of her gloves.

"No... This is not happening. This is not happening!" she desperadly tried to convince her self.

She concetrated as harder then she ever could. After a few seconds, the shaking seem to stop, and her fingers turned back to normal.

"MJ! Are you okay!?" Spider-man asked when he landed next to her, not noticing what just happen'd.

"Y-yeah, I th-think so. Where's...?"

"I webbed his feets. But I don't think it will hold him for long. We have to think of something quickly."

The young superheroine looked and and noticed the big rhino struggeling to free his feets from the ground.

"Hey. Do you see that wet cement over there?" Spidey asked her. "Maybe that could slow him down."

Not to far the fighting scene there was a patch of the street that had been digged up so they could lay some cabals. It was now covered by yet undried concrete with a big sign saying 'Warning. Wet Cement.' next to it.

"Maybe..." Jackpot said, then she was interuppted by the sound of the Rhino freeing himself, the web holding but the ground under his feet not so much. "Okay, it's worth a try."

Spider-man jumped right back in and returned to hitting the rampaging thing, while Jackpot moved to the right and picked up one of several steel pipes laying next to the building site.

_"Okay, I hope that my aiming has improved too."_ she thought. _"Next competitor for the javelin throw; Mary Jane Watson."_

She throw the steel pipe just like a javelin, it traveled through the air with great speed and hit it target with astounding accuracy. It dug deep into the Rhino's shoulder, a large amount of steam poured out of it as the arm ceased to function and went limb.

"Nice throw! Ten points out of ten!" Spider-man shouted. He then pulled out the pipe and jammed it into the behemoth's other arm.

The Rhino now had no control of both its arms. He screamed out in anger as he flailed with his limbs and tried to impale his opponent on his horn.

"YAAAAARGH!!! Diceros bicornis! Diceros bicornis!" he roared.

Jackpot ran in and hit the monster with a flying kick, making him tumble back.

"Latin? Seriously? You should stick with the grunting, it fits you better." she said to it as she continued to pounding it.

"HEY!! Over here, buttwad!" Spider-man yelled out, trying to get the big brutes attention.

The Rhino turned its head and was hit in the face with several compact web balls. The giant monster got even more angered and charged against Spidey, only to fall down in wet cement.

"NYAAAHHH!!! Impedio ego sum!!!" the giant screamed out.

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Spider-man joked.

The hole was pretty deep, making the heavy Rhino sink down to his waist. He struggled to take himself up, the cement hindering its movement, making him look like some animal trapped in a tar pit.

"Jackpot! Find something to keep him down!" Spider-man yelled out as he dived down upon the rhino and tried to keep him from getting back up.

MJ looked around to see if she could find something heavy, and quite right, she noticed a large dumpster full of demolished bricks and wooden boards. She ran up to the dumpster and grabbed a hold of it. She then lifted it for all she was worth. The fully loaded dumpster most had weight several tonnes, and she felt every pound of it. Every muscle in her body screamed out in pain, sweat broke out of every pore on her and the seams of her suit started to rip as her muscles swelled up from the feat of strenght.

She lifted the dumpster over her head and slowly started to move towards the wet cement. Her suit got soaking wet from her own sweat. When she finally could see the mechanical rhino's body, since the dumpster blocked the view from everything above her, she yelled out; "Special delivery for Mr Rhino-jerk!" and then throw the dumpster over the rhino.

All the trash in the dumpster came falling down upon the Rhino, and the dumpster itself ended upside-down over his head, making darkness all he could see. All the new weight, and without functional arms, the creature sinked back into the cement, although he soon started to move back up again.

"Aw nertz. Grab on!" Spider-man said and started to push back the giant beast into the cement, Jackpot soon joining him.

The two heroes pushed the upside-down dumpster as hard as they could down into the concrete filled hole, MJ already beeing tired out after having to lift the whole thing.

"Push, MJ! Push!" Peter yelled.

"If I push any harder I'm gonna give birth to something!" MJ yelled back.

The Rhino sinked back into the hole, and when the teen heroes after much struggle let go of it, the dumpster continued to shake as the thing inside it tried to use its last powers to get out.

"STAY DOWN!" Spider-man shouted and slammed both his fist upon the dumpster with all his strenght, making a huge CLANG-sound. The dumpster was forced down over the behemoth's head, causing it to take shape after the beings body and its horn to burst out on the top. Finally the enormous animal's strenght failed him and he sunk back into the cement, drifting into unconsciousness.

The two heroes took a few steps back to catch a breath and look at the scene, which was kind of ridiculous. There was the this giant thing buried in cement under a dumpster and all matters of crap, with a single horn sticking out. All the while the area around it was in a wreckage.

"You... you think... you think he can breath... under there?" MJ said, still caught out of breath.

"Yeah... He sounds fine." Peter said after putting his ear to the rhino-sculptured dumpster. "How... how are you doing?"

"Fine, I think. I'm just exhuasted."

They took a minute to get their pulse back to normal pace. Soon they could hear sounds of several vehicles coming closer, and quite right, soon they could see several army jeeps and even a few tanks rolling in on the street, accompanied by a small army of heavily armed soldier.

"Oh great, here comes the army. Just in time to arrest us." Spider-man said.

"Now you're just being paranoid. I'm sure they want to thank us for doing their job for them." Jackpot said, not being as negative as her boyfriend.

"No I'm sure the're gonna arrest us."

"The're gonna thank us."

One officer took out a megaphone and started to speak in it, while the soldiers aimed their weapons at the two heroes. "You two, get down on the ground NOW!!!"

"Told ya."

Spider-man took Jackpot under the arm and swinged away with her, taking them both to a rooftop far away from mean army-guys.

"You know, MJ... That was a very dangerous stunt you did back there." Peter said as he took of his mask in front of MJ. "Jumping up on that rhino-guy like that."

"I know, but I did fine, didn't I?" MJ asked as she took of her own mask.

"Oh really? He got you pretty good for what I could see. Show me your stomach." Pete told her.

MJ did as Peter said and rolled up the fabric of her spandex shirt, and on her flat stomach there was big, nasty bruise.

"Ouch. That's a big boo-boo." MJ said when looking down on the large blue spot on her abdomen. Peter reached out and put his fingers on the mark, making MJ flush.

"It looks okay." he said, checking for any internal damage. "I'm sure that will go away in time. I'm just glad you wasn't seriously hurt."

"Yeah, me too." MJ said as she rolled the spandex down. She then aimed her attention at the broken seams in her suits arms and legs. "Oh man, look at this. I can't believe I have to sew this one back up again. I need to make adjustments all the time."

"If I were you, I would pay more attention to learning some evasive maneuvers. You were kinda slow sometimes back there."

"Well, I'm not as fast as you are, remember? We don't all have a spider-sense."

Peter took a little brake from giving MJ constructive criticism, and after a little while he said; "You know, that was quite impressiv that thing you did, lifting that dumpster."

"Well, that was as far as I could go, it took all I had. And I'm so sweaty now..." She then put her nose to the costume and smelled it. "Ew, smells like an elephant-sized armpit."

Peter smiled at her remark. "Well I for one think you look hot all sweaty."

"You big flatterer."

Pete then noticed something when MJ turned around to adjust the suit. "MJ, there's a hole in your butt."

"What!?!"

MJ's hands went to her lower cheeks, and behold, on her left cheek there was a small hole, not big, but it did show some skin.

"Oh man..." MJ whined. "How humiliating."

"It's not so funny when it happen to oneself, is it? Heh, you know, you got the cutest little mole right there."

"Oh shuddup. So... What are we gonna do now?"

Peter thought for a second, but he didn't take long to come up with something. "We could make out."

Mary Jane's mouth crawled up in a little smirk. "You do have some good ideas."

The two teenagers lip-locked in a long, deep kiss, only to have MJ brake off with a shocked expression on her face after a few seconds.

"Oh god! What's the time?" she asked.

"Um, about... Oh crap!"

They said the next word together at the same time; "Class!"

* * *

Peter and MJ tumbled into the classroom roughly twenty minutes after class had started.

"I know that Mister Parker has a knack for showing up late, but don't tell me he have dragged you into it, Miss Watson." their teacher said.

"We're sorry, Mrs Montañez." Peter said, trying to excuse themself.

"We... We lost track of time." MJ filled in.

"Would any of you care to tell us what important things you two were doing that made you miss the time then?" the math teacher asked.

MJ and Peter wasn't sure what they should say, they had been in such a hurry that they hadn't came up with a good alibi. They both mumbled some inaudible words.

"I know what they have done." came from the back row of class

Everybody in the room turned around and looked at Flash Thompson. Both MJ and Peter froze in fear.

"Really, Mr Thompson?" Mrs Montañez asked. "Then maybe YOU can tell us what they were up to?"

"Yeah, I saw them sneak into the girl's locker room and they didn't came out when the bell rang. I think they were bissy _getting it on._" the blond quarterback said while leaning back in his chair in a stuck-up way.

A big _oooooooh_-sound filled the room, and the whistles and rude comments came flying. MJ had to bit her lip not to laugh at the whole situation.

"Nice done, Parker!"

"Yeah! Tap that thing!"

Mrs Montañez had already heard enough; "Quiet! Quiet, all of you! You two, take your seats. I hope we can go back to class now, without any more disturbence."

Mary Jane and Peter shuffled their feets to their seats, still hearing some diverse comments and sniggering, and as they sat down the teacher guided the class back towards algebra. MJ looked at Peter, and he loooked back into her eyes, it was like they was thinking the very same thought. They felt a strong feeling, possibly pride over what they had done, and over each other. MJ smiled at Peter, and Peter smiled back. Their classmates could say whatever they wanted, it didn't matter anyway.


	16. Chapter 16

After schoolday Mary Jane and Peter went over to MJ's place. Sitting on her bed, MJ was bissy repairing her suit while Pete was talking with somebody on his cellphone.

"...Okay, I'll tell her that. Yeah, okay. Okay, bye... And thanks again."

"Who was it, Tiger?" MJ asked when Pete turned off his phone.

"It was Reed, he wanted to tell us something he had found. He said they had checked the water pipes around here, and he found OZ in it."

MJ looked up from her costume. "In the water? You mean Doc Ock had it smuggled into the tap water?"

"That's what Reed said, and apparently it have been there for at least three weeks by now."

"So... that means I got it in me whenever I drank from the tap."

"Plus whenever you took a bath or a shower."

MJ leaned back in her bed, resting her back on the pillows. "That's good to know, but how come you haven't got it in you? Or the rest of the people of this entire suburb?"

Peter sat down in the chair next to MJ's writing-desk. "That's what I told him, and he said we must have it. It don't react to our bodies, it just go straight through us. You were the only one with the right genes, you know, the right catalyst."

"Well, that's one way to feel special."

There was a quiet moment between the two teenagers.

"So... Are you ready for patrol?" Peter said, braking the silence.

"Oh. Just give me a minute, I have to get the suit done first." MJ said.

Peter took up one of MJ's gloves and inspected it. "How did you managed to brake the fingertips?"

MJ quickly snatched the glove from Peter and stuffed it away in her nightstand, then taking out her spare gloves.

"I... I don't know." she lied to him. "The're probably just too small or something. They just burst. You know, like that."

"Uh-huh..." Peter was sure MJ kept something from him, which he didn't like, but he know he wouldn't get anything out of her, which he disliked even more. She had the bad habit of acting like she wanted him to read her mind, which he couldn't.

"So. All done." MJ said as she strapped on her boots.

The two teenagers climbed out on top of MJ's house and jumped over rooftops like two leaping frogs. When they reached a the higher ground of a much taller building, MJ stopped.

"What's that smell?" she asked.

"I swear, that wasn't me." Peter said.

"No not that, you silly. I smell smoke."

"Really? I don't smell a thing." Peter said a little hesitant.

"Yeah, well, you don't have my nose." MJ said, tapping her organ of scent with her finger. "It's coming from over there."

The young heroes ran in the direction Mary Jane had pointed out, leaping over rooftops and moving with incredible speed and spectacular agility. And very soon, they could see a tower of black smoke rise above the skyline of New York.

* * *

"Oy vey! Oy flipping vey!" Spider-man expressed in awe as they faced the flaming inferno.

"Sweet Mary, Joseph and SpongeBob!" Jackpot too expressed.

One apartment building in the middle of the street was caught on fire. Huge flames where reaching out of the windows and black smoke towered over the roof. Down on the street a small army of fire fighters were trying to quench it, while keeping the public away from it at the same time.

"What... what should we do?" Jackpot asked.

"I don't know if there's anything we can do." her boyfriend answered her. "We should let the firedepartment handle this. After all, they are the experts."

Jackpot felt both restless and worried, she thought that she should be doing something to help. Then her ear caught something in all the noise, somewhere beneath the crackling fire and screaming sirens.

"Please! My kid is still in on the fourth floor!"

"Ma'am, we can't send anyone in there! That place is a death trap!"

"Please! He's only four years old! He's going to die!"

Maybe it was the hero in Jackpot overpowering her fear, maybe it was the fellow human in her feeling sorry for the innocent little boy trapped inside. Whatever it was, she jumped right into that blazing building.

"MJ, what are doing!?!" Spidey screamed after her.

Jackpot leaped from the roof they were standing and travel'd through the air with high velocity against the window that looked the most safest, or the least dangerous she thought. She raised her arms over her head to cover herself as she smashed throught the glass and then tumbled to the floor.

_"That could had used a little more consideration."_ she thought as she stood up, then noticing that she was surrounded by blazing fire. The heat was unbearable, but it had been much worse for a normal human being.

"Hey kid!" Jackpot yelled out. "You in here!?" She couldn't hear anything besides the crackle of the fire.

The next second Spider-man came flying in through the open window.

"MJ, are you crazy!?! What are you doing in here?!"

"There's a kid trapped in here! We need to find him!"

"What?! How do you know that?!" Spidey yelled over the noice.

"I heard his mother say it!" she yelled back. They moved further into the apartment, staying as far from the fire as they could while trying to locate the little kid. The smoke stung them in their noses and made them cough.

"Can't you find him using your spider-sense-thing?!" Jackpot yelled to her boyfriend while moving into the apartments hallway.

"It doesn't work that way!" he yelled back. "And this place is dangerous all over! It's screaming in my entire head, I can't tell anything from everything else!"

That second a whole bunch of burning wreckage came falling down from the ceiling behind MJ, and in front of Peter. The two heroes was shocked to notice that they were now cut off from eachother.

"DON'T TOUCH IT!!!" Spider-man yelled when Jackpot tried to step closer to remove it. "It's too dangerous, I'll find another way in! You find the kid! Be careful!"

Peter then turned around and jumped back out of the window. Mary Jane turned around too and speeded up, there was no time to waste.

_"Come on, MJ. THINK!"_ she thought. _"Where would I be if I were a kid trapped in a burning house?"_

A memory then came to her. She recalled when she was a little girl, when her parents were fighting she used to take one of her dolls with her and hide inside the wardrobe. She remembered how many times she had been sitting in there crying and hugging that doll.

She ran as fast as she could to the apartments bedroom. In there she sure saw a big built-in wardrobe. She opened the door to it, and sitting down on the floor of it, there was a small boy hugging a blue blanket close to him. It struck MJ how all those awful memories of hers was actually saving this kids life.

"Hey..." she said to the little kid. "Listen, I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? You think you can come out of there?"

The child shaked his head. MJ crouched down next to him.

"I know you're scared, kiddo. But you have to be brave. Your mother is worried sick about you, she's so afraid of you getting hurt... or worse. So please, you have to trust me. For your moms sake."

Her words seemed to get to him. The kid reached out his arms so Jackpot could lift him up.

"Okay, hold on tight now, kiddo." MJ said as she wrapped the kids blanket around him to protect him from the fire.

Holding the kid close to her, she ran back into the hallway. Now with all the burning wreckage in the way, there was no other way for her to go but out the corridor. He kicked the door open and stepped out. But out there the fire was even worse, and the smoke blocked her sight completly.

_"Oh great... Where should I go now?"_

Her question got an answer right away. To her big surprise, a flood of water came down the stairway like a waterfall. It quenched some of the fire and made it much easier for her to see the way out.

"What the...?"

"MJ! Up here!"

Jackpot saw her partners head peek out from the stairs, and she quickly jumped up after it. She held on to the kid tightly as Pete lead them up the stairs out of an emergency exit leading to the roof. There she could see a large knocked over water tank. MJ could easily understand how Peter had made the tank fall over to put out some of the fire. Spidey took a hold on to both Jackpot and the kid as they jumped of the roof into could hear the roof collapse behind them, showing that they had left the fiery inferno in the last second.

The kids mother was still pleading to the fire fighters when the two superheroes landed on street level. Her face just beamed as she could see her son unharmed.

"Here you go, Ma'am." the female hero told her as she handed over the child. "Your son, safe and sound."

"Oh god! Thank you thank you thank you! Thank you so much!" the woman yelled out as she hugged her son close to her.

Spider-man was glad that the kid was safe, but still, there was a thing that bugged him. Then he heard something.

"Excuse me, coming through. I'm from the Daily Bugle, let me through."

Spidey looked to his left and noticed the reporter Ned Leeds working his way through the crowd. Peter was so not in the mood for him right now, but he was sure that MJ would love the attention.

"Come on now. Let's go."

Pete took MJ under the arm and swinged away, just as Leeds managed to fight his way through the fire fighters. Ned saw the two heroes disappear in the distance, and a little surly over the fact that he just missed them, he turned to get a clear picture from the eyewitnesses.

* * *

"Wow, that was scary." MJ said as she dusted off the soot from her suit and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"Mary Jane, what the hell was that?"

MJ looked at Peter with wondering, she couldn't quite grasp what he meant. "What are you talking about?"

"That thing you did back there."

"What? I saved that kid, didn't I?"

"Sure, but that's not what I'm talking about." Peter said, sounding more and more like he was about to give MJ a scolding. "You jumped into a burning building, without thinking and without saying anything to me. Have you any idea how stupid that was?"

"Oh come on!" MJ said. "It worked out well, we got the kid out and got out unharmed."

"And what if it hadn't worked out? You could have got seriously hurt. You can't risk your life just like that."

"Risk...? Should I just had let the kid die in there?"

"NO!"

MJ was taken back by Peters yell, and Peter seemed surprised himself, they were both quiet for a moment.

"I don't blame you for helping that kid, but you jumped right in there without thinking or asking for my advice. You didn't even check if that was the right apartment, you just got lucky." Peter continued. "How am I going to be able to trust you if you keep doing stuff like that?"

"Trust me?" MJ was surprised. "Peter, you CAN trust me. I was just trying to help, I had no time to think twice. You know about stuff like that."

"You don't-- You know what, forget it! I don't want to start a fight, so just forget it, okay?"

Peter turned around with his arms crossed and stared out over the city.

"I'm sorry that I upset you, Petey." MJ said, trying to calm him doing. "I only wanted to help."

Peter gave out a sarcastic snort. MJ stepped closer to him and took his hand, as to say "Please don't be mad at me", and after a moment it looked like he were beginning to soften.

"I'm sorry too..." Peter said, but it was noticeable how hard it was for him to really mean it.

MJ hated when Peter acted like this, usually it meant something bad was about to happen between them. But nagging him about it would only make it worse, she knew that far to well.

"Come on Tiger, you need to let out some steam. Let's find some punks to toss around, eh?"

"Sure, whatever..."


	17. Chapter 17

There were an dispute over a Midtown neighbourhood between two streetgangs. Before, when the Kingpin ruled all the crime in the underworld of New York, they had done their dirty work together. But now, with Wilson Fisk gone, they had split into two groups and were competing for this area. And in this very moment they were engaged in a nasty gang fight. The two gangs had ran into eachother on the street and were now fighting eachother with fists, knifes and brass knuckles. Neither of them had the brain or the money to get their hands on any bigger weapons, but the fight were still pretty bloody.

There were about fifteen thugs fighting eachother, and they all got equally surprised as two superheroes broke the tumult by landing just in the middle of them.

"If you guys can't play nice with eachother, we're gonna have to take away your toys." the female hero told them, like she was adressing a bunch of kindergarten kids.

"Who... Who the hell are you?" one of the gang members ask.

"What, you don't read the papers? Sorry... I mean, you guys? Read? Aint that right, sweetie?" she said, turning to Spider-man.

But Spider-man didn't answer.

"Oh come on, honey. You're still not mad at me, are you?"

"Um, excuse me..." another of the street thugs asked. "Are you two, like, together?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but yeah, we're a couple." Jackpot told him.

"Oh for crying out loud!" bursted out of Spider-mans mouth. "Why don't you tell them our home adresses while you're at it?"

"Come on, Tiger. It's not that big of a deal."

"HEY! Ixnay on the tigeray."

Both the two gangs were stunned, here were two heroes actually quarreling with eachother right in front of them. One of the smarter street punks tried to sneak away before he ended up unconscious.

"And where are you think you're going?" Spider-man said, pulled him in with a webline and webbed him to a wall.

The fighting took off. During which, Jackpot noticed what a bad mood her boyfriend was in, since he did not made a joke or any banter while he fought.

"Come on, honey. Say something. This is our thing, I insult the bad guys then you insult the bad guys. Can you at least make a stupid-joke?" she said while throwing one gang member across the street.

"I'm not in the mood for any banter." Spidey told her while he knocked out another street punk.

"You can't honestly still be mad about me for that fire thing. What's wrong with you?"

"ME?! You're the one who jumps headlessly right into things!"

The two teens was now starting to yell at eachother, all while still fighting the street thugs.

"Who made you the king of superheroes anyway!?" Jackpot yelled at Spidey while she dodged one thugs fist and delivered a punch to his stomach.

"I'm the one with more experience here! You should do as I tell you, that way you don't risk killing both of us!" he yelled back at her, without even looking at her.

"What a bunch of bull! I have been doing great so far!"

"Oh yeah!? How about that Menace-guy who almost choped your head off a few days ago?!"

Jackpot kicked a crook into a garbage bin, she was starting to loose her temper big time.

"And another thing!" Spidey yelled out as he threw a thug up in the air and webbed him to a street light. "I don't like you calling me all those pet names when we're fighting guys like these either!"

"Why are you acting like such a tool!?!" Jackpot yelled out.

"I'm just trying to make you realize how serious this is!!!" Spider-man yelled back at the top of his lungs.

"Bullshit!!! You're just trying to get me to lay off this hero stuff so your ego won't--"

CRACK

MJ stopped like she was frozen out of time. In the anger against her boyfriend, she had lost control of her powers and punched one of the street thugs right in the face with all her strenght. The result had been a nasty sound as bones broke, and the guy then fell to the ground, all bloody and his face starting to swell up.

"What are you doing!?!" Peter yelled out when he too heard it. All the other gang members ran away as quick as they could, leaving their buddy lying there.

"I-- I-- I don't know--" MJ stuttered.

Peter leaned down and put his fingers to the guys neck.

"I can't find a pulse!" Pete said. He then adjusted the guys head and pulled up his own mask as he tried to give the mouth-to-mouth. He then put his ear to the guys chest to check his heartbeat, and started to do the CPR on him. All while Mary Jane stood in shock, with her hands over her mouth, over what she just had done.

Peter pushed against that mans chest several times, trying to not push to hard since his superstrenght could hurt this guy even more, and then listened to his heart again.

"Come on!" he said between his teeth.

He kept giving pressure to that guys chest and then tried to breathe in more air in his lungs. He then put his ear to his heart again.

"I... I think I can hear it. We need to take this guy to a hospital, right now!"

Peter lifted the guy up in his arms and started heading towards the closest ER. He stopped when he noticed that Mary Jane was just standing there, still frozen on the spot.

"MJ, come on! Don't just stand there!"

"I-- Peter, I didn't-- I didn't mean to..." MJ managed to get out of her mouth as she tried to fight back the urge to cry.

"We talk about that later, we got to get this guy to a hospital first. Come on!"

* * *

Mary Jane were sitting on the roof of the hospital. She were wiping her face clear from her tears and cleaned her fogged up goggles with her sleeves. She couldn't belive what she almost had done just a few minutes ago.

Behind her, Peter walk up after just having checked with the young man they just had dropped off. "Well..." he said. "I checked with the doctors, and they said the guy have a nasty skull fracture and is probably gonna eat through a straw for some time. But he will survive."

That was a relief for MJ, she didn't know what she would have done if she actually had killed that guy.

"MJ, what were you doing? You can't hit a normal person with all your strenght! Don't you know that?"

"Peter, I don't know what I-- I just... I lost focus. I didn't mean too..."

"Are you really this stupid?! Don't you realize that we're dealing with peoples life here?!"

Another tear came down MJ's cheek. "Why are yelling at me?" she whimpered.

"I'm trying to get you to realize that this is not a game!"

"It's your fault too, you know... You're the one who were started to argue with me."

Peter raised a finger at MJ. "Don't you try to blame me for this! You have been totally irresponsible since this whole thing started!"

"You realize what a complete tool you are right now!?!" MJ yelled out. "Don't you think I feel awful enough already?!"

"I don't care, I'm only thinking about your safety! If you don't pull your act together you can kiss this superhero thing goodbye!"

"Well, I know what you can kiss!"

And by that, with her sadness tranformed into anger, MJ turned around and jumped off the hospital roof.

"Where are you going?!" Peter yelled after her.

"Away from you! And don't you dare follow me!" she yelled back without looking.

Peter, who was starting to get a bad headache from all this, rubbed the bridge of his noice and muttered to himself; "Bet Tony Stark never have this kinds of problem."

* * *

"Where is it? Where is it?!"

Vin Gonzales was feeling the worst pain he ever had felt. He fumbled with his stash as he picked up the vial of drugs he were using. He filled the needle with the drug and drove it into the vain in his arm. As the drug spread through his bloodsystem, the pain in his body finally went away. But it was replaced by another, even stranger feeling. His skin felt like it was full of bubbles, popping, exploding and turning itself inside out.

His skin was actually changing, it changed color and started to look more like muscles and skinless flesh, like he wasn't having any skin at all. He roared like some animal, ripped off his shirt, thrusted around like he were having some severe spasm. He then ran out, screaming and snarling.

Out from the shadows came Doctor Hollister. Hiding out of sight, she had observed everything.

"Now that was fun. To bad I didn't document it."

The blond woman then pulled out her briefcase, pulled out a small mechanical device and started to tinker with it.

"I think it's time to lure out that Jackpot-girl. She's going to answer some of my questions, and if she don't, I'll cut her open and take the answers from her."

* * *

Mary Jane was sitting on the bed in her room, hugging her pillow tight to her. She didn't know if she should continue to cry or smash something into pieces, and she couldn't believe what an asshole Peter had been just a few hours earlier. Like she weren't feeling bad enough after putting that guy in hospital bed. But no, Mister Spider-man had to go and be all jerk about it.

_"Who does he think he is?"_ she asked herself. _"He was going through the exact same thing when he started, and now he think that he's so much better then me."_

She got up from the bed and started to pack down her Jackpot-costume in her backpack, and then she walked out of her room, sneaked past her mother and went out the front door.

_"I'll show him. I'll show him I can be as good as he is! I'll show him that I can be even better then him!"_


	18. Chapter 18

The sun were starting to set when Mary Jane decided to suit up. Looking at her right, she noticed a phone booth standing on the corner of the street. She looked at it for a long time before she went; "Naaaaaaahhh..."

Instead, she slank into a building that she and Peter usually refered to as The Place. An abandoned, closed down warehouse, or an old factory, the city seemed to have forgot that The Place existed and therefor it had been the perfect place to go to when the two teenagers wanted some time for themselves. It had becomed something of their own Fortress of Solitude.

MJ sneaked into The Place trough a broken window, since the door was locked, and started to change into her costume. When she was done she stuffed her civilian outfir into her backpack and hid it behind some stuff. With her Jackpot-suit on, she climbed back out of the window and headed out into the evening.

The first thing she ran into was a car accident where two vehicles had collided with eachother. But the police and ambulance was allready on the scene and it didn't seemed like there was anything a superhero could do here, so MJ moved along. About an hour later, when it now was completly dark, the only thing she had found suspiscious was a loud racket that she decided to investigate. But that had just been two stray dogs going through some garbage cans. Boredom now was starting to come over her.

_"Oh man."_ she thought. _"If something doesn't show up soon... Wait a minute, what is this?"_

She had stumbled upon a store were the store window was completley smashed into pieces. She looked at the sign above the window, 'Drugstore' it read.

_"Okay, let's see what we got here."_

She stepped into the store through the broken glass. The drugstore was completely dark, the staff seemed to have gone home a long time ago. Several of the shelves were knocked down and there was emptied plastic jars lying all over the floor.

Jackpot then heard a strange sound coming from further in inside the store, so she stepped closer to where this sound was coming from. Peeking behind a shelf, she noticed a figure leaning over the floor, apparently eating something. She took a deep breath and stepped into the aisle.

"Robbing a pharmacy? What are you stealing? Viagra?"

The strange figure stopped eating and turned around to face the joking stranger, MJ's eyes went big as saucers when she saw what she was facing. The thing was looking mostly human, but it's skin was looking more like naked flesh and had several small bony outgrowths on it. His fingers were more like claws and his eyes were in different colors, one in yellow and one in red. The creature looked more like it was made out of parts from different animals, put together to look like a human. He wore tattered clothes and in his right hand he held a half empty jar of pills.

"Whoa... Um, you know... I know a good beauty parlor that could clear that up for you in less then an hour, if you're interested." the redheaded hero nervously joked.

The man, if you could call it a man, growled like a beast at MJ. "Leave me alone!" he shouted out and threw the jar at her. Jackpot easily ducked the plastic projectile and noticed that the guy had turned his back on her and returned his eating medicines of the floor.

"Hey, I'm talking to you here! Girls do not appreciate being igno--"

She stopped talking, because now something really freaky was happening to the guy. Right in front of her eyes, she could see him grow a TAIL. As he gulped down mouth after mouth of pills and other drugs, a small tentacle-like thing grow out from where his tailbone probably where. Like watching a flower grow in a time-lapse film, it snaked it was out of the back of the mans trousers and grew into a lenght of three foot. It was naked and fleshy, like the tail of a rat or some kind of snake.

"Oooookay... freaky." MJ had seen a lot in her life by now, but this still made chills run down her spine. "Um, listen... Being a superhero and all, I'm afraid I have to take you down. Since you're breaking and entering, you know."

The creature stopped chewing, he turned around and looked very pissed off. "I said leave me alone!!!"

The monster launched against Jackpot with great speed. She jumped to the side just in time to avoid the thing smashing into her like a football player tackling his opponent. The freaky mans tail whipped her in her face as he flew pass her, making everything go black before her eyes from the hit. When she regained focus a second later, she noticed that the guy had disappeared, and a loud clang could be heard from outside. She rushed out only to find an empty street. But she did see an open manhole, the lid having been thrown away. There was not hard to figure out where they guy had gone, but MJ hesitated. She really didn't wanted to go down there, but she knew she pretty much had to.

She climbed down the manhole and ended up in a the sewer. MJ's nightvision had developed when she got her powers, but down here, with a total absence of light, even she coudn't see a thing. As far as she could tell, the sewer stretched out for miles in both directions. No way she was going to find the freak-guy down here.

"First time I wish I didn't got such a supernose." he said when she climbed back up, the stench down there was more then she could endure. "Well, this sure was a fun meeting. Like I didn't had enough freaks to deal with in my life already." Without anything else to do here and hearing the police sirens in the distance, she quickly left the scene.

* * *

At a local convenience store, two clerks was tending the nightshift. One was a tall young man, not even twenty, with a severe acne problem. The other was a girl the same age, wearing gothic make-up. They seemed pretty bored, the girl doing her nails and the boy counting pennies on the counter. But excitement was about to come to them.

In through the door stepped three women. All three of them wearing white bikinis and big, white, fluffy bunny heads with long ears and pink noses. They would have been funny to look at if they hadn't been carrying shotguns. One of the women aimed her gun at the two clerks who quickly raised their hands in the air.

"Open the register!" she ordered them while her two compaions looked around the store.

The zit-covered man nervously opened the cash register and put all the money on the desk.

"Put them in a plastic bag. Hey girls!!! Take whatever you want!" the masked woman yelled out to her friends before addressing the stores employers again. "You guys should thank us for making you famous, you have just been the first victims of The White Rabbit gang."

"And people think MY name is silly."

The female robber turned her head to see who that voice came from, but was then sent flying into a pyramid of cans with tomato sauce. The green-clad superheroine appeared in the doorway, her arms crossed and her head shaking from right to left.

"You know, I didn't asked for much, but I could never belive my rogue galley would be THIS lame."

One of the rabbit-robbers shot at Jackpot, who jumped out of the line of fire and behind a shelf, the shot instead destroyed the glass in the door behind her. When the robber ran up to Jackpot's aisle to get a better aim, she was hit in the face with a large bottle of orange soft drink. The bunny mask kept her face from getting hurt, but the surprise of the attack made her lose focus on the hero that now ran up to her and knocked her out. The last of the all female robbers took a shot at Jackpot with her shotgun, only to hit bags of snacks, covering the floor with potato chips.

"I can't believe this is happening!" the robber said while shoting after Jackpot a second time.

"I can't believe I almost wore the same outfit today. That would have been awwwwwwkward." MJ said with a voice like a clueless teenager after ducking the flying lead.

The White Rabbit robber tried to fire at Jackpot a third time, but found out to her great dismay that the shotgun only held two shots. Jackpot wasn't sure what face the robber made behind the bunny mask when she lifted her up, but she was sure it was a funny one.

Milk spilled out on the floor as the last female robber flew into the dairy counter. MJ, seeing the mike on the cashier desk, leaned against it and said into it; "Cleaner to aisle seven." The two clerks looked at her with a astonishment as her words echoed in the loudspeakers.

"I alway wanted to say that." she explained. "Um, by the way, sorry about the mess. Kind of hard to avoid it, though. Oooh, strawberry twizzlers! May I...?"

Both the clerks nodded at the strange girl who just had saved them, as to say "Go ahead" and the redhaired hero took a twizzler out of the jar on the counter and took a bite from it.

"Thanks. And, um, you guys should call the police. Okay, bye."

Jackpot then walked out of the store, still eating her licorice. The two young clerks looked at the door as it closed behind her.

"Whoa. Was that who I think it was?" the goth-girl asked.

"Yeah, it sure was." her fellow worker answered. "We just got saved by Batwoman."

* * *

_"I can't believe those gals were for real. But that twizzler sure was good. Should had asked if I could take two."_

MJ was laughing on the inside for a long time. But she soon got other stuff to think about, she was already on to something else. Three suspicious looking guys were sneaking around, bragging among themself about stuff that MJ thought of as very... _'suspicious'._

She followed the three men to a dark building that basically reeked the word 'secret hide-out'. After seeing the three guys get inside, she sneaked in through a open window and hid among the shadows, just like Peter had taught her. _"Oh Peter... __Maybe I should give him a call when I'm done...?"_ For one moment she felt guilty for that fight they had earlier, but then she rememberd how much he had scolded her and yelled. _"Yeah right! He can call ME when he's ready to apologize."_

"I'm telling you, Ox. Robbing a gas station is much more fun then robbing a bank."

"Yeah yeah, whatever, Dan."

"No, I mean it. Sure there's less money in it, but it's much less security AND you never heard of a superhero saving a gas station."

"You're a freaky little guy, Dan."

MJ closed in on the voices, she peeked out from a behind a corner and now saw the three men standing around a table in a big room. They seemed to be waiting for someone.

"So, Montana, when is this guy you know gonna show up?"

"Soon. And trust me, joining side with him is the best thing we can do. He's one of the best."

"I sure hope you're right. I'm tired of being thrown in and out of jail al the time because some clown in tights."

Now MJ recalled who these guys was, Peter had telled her about them. The big, black man with the muscles was known as Ox, the teams strongman. The short guy was Fancy Dan, a gunslinger. And the guy with the cowboy hat and the bullwhip was Montana Bale. They were all losers.

A fourth person entired the room through a backdoor, this guy was just as tall as Ox and wore a trenchcoat and a hat to cover up his looks. "Did anybody followed you?" he asked. He spoke with what sounded like a russian accent.

"None what so ever." Fancy Dan said, and MJ smiled to herself in the shadows.

"Good. Now, as you guys now, The Kingpin is history. Which makes this town a smorgasbord for the small guys like us. No offence, Dan."

Dan frowned.

"Anyway." the new guy continued. "I'm gonna start repairing my trashed reputation in this city, and you guys seem to be in need of someone who can take the lead. I think we would get an advantage if we worked together. What do you say?"

Fancy Dan was the first to speak. "As long as you can keep the superfreaks of my back, I'm in."

"You knew I'm up for it." Montana said.

"What about you, Ox?"

Ox thought about it for a moment. "Will there be any money in it?"

"Lots of it."

"Then count me in."

KABOOM

"Whathehell...!?!"

The empty wooden crate had come from nowhere and smashed into that table between the Enforcers and their new friend. Wooden pieces shattered all over the place and dust flew up in the criminals eyes. When the dust settled, Jackpot stepped up from her hiding place from where she had throwned the crate. She placed her hands on her hips and smirked self-confident.

"Hi guys. Any of you mind if a girl join your little party?"

"Oh man..."

"Not another one..."

The fourth person adjusted his hat. "You said you weren't being followed."

"Yeah but..."

"No 'buts'. Get rid of this thing. NOW!"

Ox moved up against Jackpot and tried to take her by the arm, but she moved behind him with amazing speed and kicked him across the room. Montana, realizing the gravity, cracked his whip against Jackpot and wrapped it around her arm. He then tried to pull her in, which made MJ laugh. Instead she yanked her arm and made Montana fly face first into her fist. Fancy Dan pulled out his guns and fired them off, Jackpot cartwheeled out of his aim and ducked behind some crates. She picked up a steel pipe lying on the floor and threw it across the room, hitting the short gunman over the head and knocked him out. Then MJ noticed how Ox tried to bring his entire bodymass down upon her again. But she didn't let his size scare her, quick as a cat she moved out of his way and Ox fell down over the crate she was hiding behind, smashing it into lumber and ending up on the floor. When he tried to get up on his feets, MJ smashed another crate over his head, making him pass out.

With all the Enforcers knocked out, Jackpot brushed the dirt off her hands. "Piece a cake. Your turn?" she said when moving her attention to the fourt guy in the room.

"You have absolutely no idea who you are messing with, girl." the tall man in trenchcoat said to her.

"Then why don't you tell me, big guy?"

"Oh, gladly." the big man said as he started to take off his coat. "You, girl, have the great honor to meet your death by the hands of the one, the only..." He throw his coat to the floor and removed his hat, revealing his face. "The deadly Omega Red!"

With the trenchcoat now removed, Jackpot could see what she now was facing. This guy was big, really big, and very muscular. His skin was chalkwhite and he had long blond hair tied in a pony-tail, while his eyes were red. He wore some kind of leather vest without arms and on his forehead he had what seemed like a tattoo of an omega-sign, a red one. The strangest thing was that from each of his forearms there was a long snake-like tentacle sticking out.

Jackpot first looked at the Omega Red like she couldn't believe what she was seeing, then something on her inside started to shake. This shake grew into a giggle, that then grew into a small laughter. Then she bursted out into a full-lenght guffaw. She laughed so hard she couldn't breath.

"OH MY GOD! HA HA HA...! I can't believe this!!!" she managed to squeeze out between the laughters, while Omega Red just stood there, surprised by the reaction he got ftom the young heroine. "Oh man... heh heh. Why do all the loony looking punks in this town coming out tonight? Have I missed something, did Halloween come early this year? I mean, look at you! You wasn't hit by an ugly-stick, you fell out of the ugly-tree and hit every branch on the way down. Ooh! Did you hear what I just did? That was my first ugly-joke. I'm so proud of myself."

"What the hell is you problem!?!"

The man known as Omega Red lashed his tentacle-whips against Jackpot who easily jumped out of the way. She then leaped in close to his body and punched him right in his stomach. The big albino tumbled back a few steps, then punched Jackpot in her own stomach with his left fist and slashed her with his right whip. Jackpot responded with a punch over the guys face, making him loose a tooth and spit out blood, and then hit him with her other fist in the side. But then Omegar Red managed to wrap one of his tentacles around Jackpots leg, he lifted her up in the air and smacked her into the ground like a child with a tantrum braking a toy. Then he flinged her over the room.

"You can't win over me. I was trained by the best!" Omega Red bragged to her.

"Big deal..." Jackpot said as he wiped off the blood on her lower lip, and now she was getting mad. "I go to public school."

"Haha, cute. Just wait 'til I... Wait, did you said 'go to' or 'went to'?" Omegar Red didn't get an answer, instead he got a trash bin in his face, and then Jackpot jumped on him, delievering punch after punch.

Fancy Dan woke up all groggy and with a major headache. He saw one of his guns lying on the floor in front of him, and he saw his new boss fighting the new superhero. And it looked like he was loosing.

Jackpot had by now managed to get her hands on Omega Reds tentacles and swinged him around in a circle over her head like a Olympic hammer thrower. She then let go of her grip and Omega Red flew into the wall with a loud thud. "Oooooh... That had to hurt."

"Oh yeah? So will this, bitch!"

Full of sell-confidence from having her victory within grasp, Jackpot turned around to face the wee criminal and...

BANG

At first, Mary Jane didn't feel a thing, even though she staggered a step back. But then there was this tiny little pain starting in her left shoulder, right under the collar bone, that grew bigger and bigger until it was unbearable. She moved her hand and touched the spot that hurt, and when she looked at her hand she saw that there was blood on her fingers. She started to gasp for air, and her knees went weak from the pain spreading through her body. She fell to the floor.

"Not so tough now, huh?!" Fancy Dan said as he reloaded his gun, preparing it to finish her off.

"Leave her!" Omega Red yelled at him as he got up on his legs.

"But..."

"Someone most have heard your shots, the cops could be here any minute. We have to move, so go wake your buddies. Besides, it will be more painful for her this way."

MJ couldn't think straight. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf, she had a hard time to breath, and the pain in her shoulder and left arm was the only thing that filled her head. She tried to get back up on her legs, but all she could manage was to crawl up on her right arm. Her eyes flickered over towards her left hand and she could see how the fingertips of the glove bursted to reveal her nail, her nails that grow longer and sharper, turning her fingers into claws.

"Everybody 'wake?" Omega Red asked, unaware of what was happening behind his back.

"Kinda..." Montana said while rubbing his face.

"Come on, let's get out of here before someone of her partners shows up."

MJ had lost control of her entire body. She could see her body change before her and there was nothing she could do about it. She saw her arms lenghten and grew more muscular, bursting the seams in her suit, and how her skin got covered by short, red hair. The same color as the hair on her head. She could feel the very same thing happen to her entire body. And it was not only her body that changed, her mind seemed to sink back into her head and released a creature that lived in all humans reptilian complex. A creature of pure instinct and rage. She could only moan as she started to outgrew her costume, adrenaline filling her veins like a waterfall filling a bathtub.

"Ox! Get up."

"Uhhh... What happen'd?"

"A costume-freak happen'd. Come on, let's go before-"

The Enforcers were was silenced by was sounded like the roar of some great beast. All four of them slowly turned around and saw something that was not like any other thing they had ever seen. The creature was taller then any of them, six-foot-eleven tall and was covered entirely by short red fur, while on its head it had much longer, lonscious hair in the same color. It had black claws on its hands and feets, its teeths were like fangs, horns stuck out on its head while its eyes glowed yellow. Althought it was athletic and powerfully built, it had curved feminine hips, an hourglass shaped figure and a very VERY ample chest. Its face was very beautyfull too, with pouty lips and a fully normal nose, despite the horns and red color. It wore tattered and torned clothes in green and white while a mask with golden goggles laid broken next to its feets. The entire being looked like a female demon or a she-devil, and it looked at the four men with rage in its eyes, all while blood were slowly leaking out of the wound in her shoulder.

"The... hell..?" Montana stuttered.

"Wha- What is that thing?!" Ox yelled out.

The female creature screamed at them, a scream that sounded like the mixture of both human and animal. She then jumped at them with inhuman speed. The Enforcer had almost no time to react, they were flinged aside as easy as they were dolls. The Ox moved up and tried to wrestle her down, but she just broke free from his arms like he had the strenght of a child and punched him in his guts, making him fall down to the floor from the pain. Montana managed to wrap his whip around her legs while Fancy Dan shot at her with his gun, but this time the bullets didn't even penetrate her skin, it just made her stumble on the spot. She easily broke free from the whip and lifted Montana up in the air, then flinged him, making him crash into Fancy Dan.

"Everybody at once, you idiots!" Omega Red screamed out as he moved in closer to the red woman.

All the four men jumped up upon her, their gathered strenght seemed to force her down. But just a second after it looked like The Enforcers had got the upper hand, the red woman throw them off like they weighted nothing and the Enforcers crashed into the walls.

"Screw this!" Fancy Dan yelled. "I'm getting the hell out of here!"

He ran out through the backdoor and his two fellow criminals soon followed him, leaving the Omega Red alone with her. He managed to get up behind her, wrapped her arms around her and tried to lift her up in the air. But she grabbed his hands and threw him over her head, making him smash into the floor in front of her. He quickly got up on his legs and with a angry scream he charged against her. He managed to punch her in the face, and she responded by punching HIM in his face. Then she slashed him over his chest with her claws.

"Aaaagh! What the hell are you doing!?!" Omega Red yelled out, but his opponent didn't answer.

Instead she continued to pound him with her fist. Punch after punch landed on his face and torso and another slash with the claws teared up a wound on his body. She wasn't fighting him any more, she was mauling him, like a berserking animal mauling its prey. When Omega Red had too little strenght to fight back, MJ lifted him up and throw him against the wall with all her boosted strenght. He flew through the wall, braking it, and landed on the street outside.

The transformed young girl looked out through the hole in the wall and could see how the russian assassin limped away to lick his wounds. She turned her attention to the wound she still had in her shoulder. All the blood had stained the hair on her body, and even though all the rage in her had numbed the pain, it slowly started to return to her as her fury ebbed away. She leaped into the air, making a jump of at least a hundred feet up, and disappeared into the dark.

* * *

MJ landed outside The Place. She staggered into it, braking open a door as she did, and felt all her strenght starting to leave her as she kneeled down to the floor. She started to shrink down to her normal form, all her red fur turned back into naked pink flesh and her claws returning to normal fingernails. Wearing only her torned costume, she held her shoulder as even more blood seem to pour out of it. She couldn't think straight, she saw stars before her teary eyes and she could barerly get up on her feets again. She knew she had to call for help, but there was only one person she knew could help her.

She pulled out her backpack from its hiding place and took out her cellphone. She fumbled with it, she felt so cold that her body hardly could respond to her. She gagged as some of her stomach fluid tried to force itself upside her throat. He dialed the number and with a shaky and blood covered hand lifted the phone to her ear.

It rang once, it rang twice, it rang thrice. Then she could hear Peters voice; "Hi, you've reached Peter Parkers phone. I can't answer right now but leave a mezzle after the tizzle and I will call you as soon as I can." MJ then heard a peep as the voice mail on Peters cell activated.

"Peter... I need your help... I've- I've been shot..." MJ cried into her phone. "It-- It hurts so much... There's so much... so much blood. I'm- I'm at The Place... Please... Please, help me... I-I-I... Oh god it hurts. I don't think I can... Peter. I just want to say... I love you. I love you so mu--"

The cellphone fell out of Mary Janes hand as she landed to the floor. Just before she slipped into unconsciousness, she could in the faded distance hear how there was a click in her phone and a male voice yelled out of the speaker.

"Mary Jane!? Mary Jane...!!!"

* * *

**AN: Dum dum du-dum!**

**A short notice. I wanted MJ's new Demogoblin-look to look more like the red She-Hulk but with claws and all. I figured that since she has evolved with her powers then so should have her alternative form do too, so I made it a little less doggy looking.**


	19. Chapter 19

Mary Jane slowly open her left eye, then closed it. She then open both her eyes and saw a very familiar ceiling. She sat up in her bed, she felt weak and her shoulder ached like hell. She held her left arm and noticed that she was now wearing one of her own T-shirts. The light blue one with the Superman shield on it. She was also wearing a new pair of underpants, to her big surprise. Someone had dressed her in her undergarments and tucked her in under her bedsheets.

She looked at the alarm watch on her nighttable, it said 2 AM, which meant it was now Friday. And on a chair in the other end of her room, MJ could see who had brought her home. Peter was sleeping on the chair, his head leaning back on the chair and his mouth slightly open, wearing only his regular slacks and a white t-shirt. MJ' heart grew to twice its size in her chest when she saw him, her knight in shining armor.

She leaned in and put her hand on his knee. "Peter?"

MJ more startled Pete then wake him. "AHHH...! MJ? Oh thank god you're awake!"

"Oh Peter... you look like hell." MJ joked, but it wasn't untrue. Peter's eyes were red and swollen, probably from crying, his hair was a mess and there was dirt on his face and shirt.

"But you look beautiful." he answered.

"Oh stop it." MJ said as she brushed back her hair behind her ear, god know how messy it looked right now.

MJ could then see how tears was starting to well out of Peters eyes, and the next he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close to him.

"I'm so sorry, MJ... I'm- I'm sorry for everything. For all those things I said... For yelling at you... I am so sorry..."

Now it was MJ's turn to start crying. "It's okay, Peter... It- It was my own fault. I should had listen to you. I was so- I was so stupid."

"No... no, you're not stupid, Mary Jane. If I- If I hadn't yelled at you... If I had only gone with you tonight... then this would never happen'd. God... you almost got killed because of it."

MJ raised her hand to Peters face and brushed off some of the dirt. "That was no one's fault but my own, Petey. I... I was reckless and... irresponsible. I- I was so drunk with these powers that I thought nothing could hurt me. Of course it took a bullet to get me down to earth again."

MJ snorted as her nose started running from all the crying. Peter handed her towel he had brought with him, she blew her nose in it and then wiped her tears.

"Not- not your suit this time...?" MJ asked, half jokingly. Peter shaked his head.

"Mary Jane..." Peter said. "If you had died... I don't know what I would have done. If- If the last thing I had said to you was... those awful things..."

MJ layed her hand on Peter's cheek. "I know what you mean, Peter. We should have talked to each other instead of yelling. But you were right all along... I was just too stubborn to listen."

"Could it really be so that we were both right?" Peter asked.

"That, if anything, would make people start fighting with each others." MJ answered.

Peter was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "The thing is..." he said. "The thing is, MJ, that I was jealous. I think I was jealous of you."

MJ didn't understand what Peter was saying. "Jealous? Peter, you can do things I can only dream of. You can climb walls, you can webswing across town in just a few minutes and you can sense a bullet coming at you and dodge it like nothing (something I would have appreciated to be able to do)."

"What I mean is... I'm jealous of you because you have me. You have me, and I had nothing. I lost Uncle Ben because of my own stupidity, I had to learn everything the hard way, and now you come along and seem to have everything served on a silver plate. I think that I, at least subconsciousness, was jealous that you had me to teach you and help you with everything while I had no one. No one to talk to, no one to support me, no one to help me when I needed it."

"Oh Peter..." MJ's heart sank in her chest, she hated seeing him this tortured.

"And maybe... maybe that's why I took it so bad when you accidently sent that guy to the hospital. Not only did I think that you were too reckless, but I also felt that I had failed helping you when you needed me. It felt like it was all my fault."

"Peter." MJ said. "It's NOT your fault. You don't have to carry all the worlds problem on your shoulders."

"I know, I'm just... I'm just guilt-ridden by nature. After our fight... I felt like the worlds biggest jerk, and like a hypocrite. I have been through exactly the same thing as you do and now I'm lecturing you about it, I did not have the rights to do that. I see that now, and I'm so sorry."

MJ nodded.

"From now on..." Peter continued. "...I promise that I'll be more supporting and to not be such a tool towards you."

"And I promise to listen to what you're saying. I'll promise to take fewer risk and try to use my head more often." MJ told Peter and he nodded back at her.

The two teenager embraced each other again and then kissed, as if to seal the deal. MJ smiled with one corner of her mouth when they broke off, their tears having flavouring their kiss. "Heh... salty."

After a moment of silence, Peter looked at the time. "Well... I was told to clean your wound when you woke up. We better get that over with." he said as he picked out a bottle of antiseptic and a small ball of cotton. "MJ, I need you to take off your shirt."

MJ giggled. "And how long have you been waiting to say that?"

"Just take it off, Red."

"I love it when you're being so forceful." MJ joked as she turned around in her bed and started to wriggle out of her supergirl-shirt.

When she had put the shirt to the side, she could see how someone had put a bandage over the shoulder she had been shot in. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned back facing Peter, shyly avoiding to meet her boyfriends eyes. Both she and Pete blushed from the situation.

"Yeah, uh..." Peter gulped. "I'm just gonna... remove this." He then carefully unwrapped the gauze, trying as hard as he could to keep his eyes from moving downwards. As all the bandage was removed, MJ could see that she now had a few stitches over her closed up bullet wound. It was not a pretty sight.

"Wow... You really heal up fast. It already looks much better." Peter said, and MJ didn't think she wanted to know how bad it looked before. Peter dipped the cotton in the antiseptic and told MJ; "Okay, this is gonna sting."

He dabbed the wet cotton over MJ's wound, and MJ almost jumped up in the air from it.

"Ouch!"

"Told ya."

"Man... All those times I used that on you, I thought you were just being a big baby. But that stuff really hurts."

Peter just rolled his eyes as he applied more of the alcoholic substance, to MJ's big displeasure. "Well..." he said, trying to raise both his and MJ's spirit. "Guess this is one way to found out you're not bulletproof."

"Talk about doing it the hard way. Peter..." MJ said. "I have to ask, now when we are in this awkward situation and all. Did you undress me?"

"Um... I-I-I-I had to." Peter answered nervously. "I couldn't let you sleep in a tattered suit. I- I swear I didn't do anything else."

"Peter, I know you didn't, I trust you and I know you're not that kind of guy. But what really happen'd? Last thing I remembered is blacking out at the Place."

Peter put away the antiseptic and scratched his neck. "And that's were I found you. I- I got your phone call, and to be honest, I was too mad to even bother picking up the phone when I saw it was you. But when I heard your voice mail... God, I got so scared. I picked up my webshooters, didn't even bother to change my clothes, and I swinged away faster then I ever swinged before."

Mary Jane listened very carefully to Peter's words.

"I found you on the floor, your suit shredded and you lying in a puddle of your own b-blood..." Peter stuttered out the last word as the terrifying image returned to him. "It- it have to be the most horrible thing I've ever seen... You lying there... looking like you were dead... I froze on the spot, I wasn't able to move a muscle."

MJ bit into her lower lip, she could imagen how horrible the scene must have been for Peter.

"First...after a few seconds, when I was able to move again, I had to made sure you weren't really dead." Peter continued as he started to wrap the gauze back around MJ's shoulder. "I managed to find your pulse, thank god. It was weak, but still there. So I took a piece of my shirt and put on a improvised pressure bandage over your wound with my webbing." He then showed her the bottom edge of his T-shirt where he had ripped of a big piece.

"Then I-- Um, you can put your shirt back on, MJ." Peter said when he finished wrapping on the bandage.

MJ turned around again and picked up the blue shirt. "Then what happen'd?" she asked as her head popped up in the shirts neck.

"Well... I realized it was to risky to get you to a hospital, so I took you to the only place left I know could help you."

"Which was?"

"The Baxter building. And thank god they had that scanning-thingy or I might had to fight a whole bunch of security robots or something to get in there. There was this huge commotion as we got there and met up with all the F4 tripping out of bed... They took you to the emergency room and had you sedated, oh man, and they started to operate on you. It- it can't have been taking more then a few minutes but... but it- it felt like hours."

Pete's voice trembled when he spoke. MJ put her hand over her mouth, it was scary knowing that all that had happen'd to her without she being awake to see it.

Peter continued to filling in the blanks in Mary Jane's head; "Reed and Susan... they managed to get the bullet out of you and then started to patch you up. They said you were lucky, the bullet had grazed the key bone and missed your lung by an inch or two. They told me that a normal person wouldn't survive losing that much blood, but your body produced new bloodcells at an incredible speed and was already starting to heal itself back up. They stitched you up and gave you an IV, then we kept you in a bed at the Baxter building for some hours 'til Reed said that it would be better for you to wake up in a more familiar place. So they gave us a ride in the Fantasticar, I carefully sneaked you in trough the window, changed you out of the FF-gown and tucked you into bed." His voice started to regain its strenght when he got to the end of the story.

"How... how did my mother react to all this?" MJ asked.

"Well, she don't know about anything of it. After a while, around midnight when you were sleeping tight, she came in to see if you were asleep. I managed to hide in the closet before she saw me. I would guess that she just think you got home late and went straight to bed. She's sleeping in her room now."

MJ put her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs, tonight had been a close call she thought.

"Are you... are you going to tell her about you being Jackpot, MJ?" Peter asked her. "I think she deserves to know."

"Yeah but... not yet. I guess I have to sooner or later, but I don't think it's the right time to do it right after I've been shot."

"No, guess not."

"I mean... your aunt had a heart attack after you told her, I could only imagen what my mom will do. Her head will shoot right off her body."

"Well, when you decide to tell her, let me know. I promise I'll help you out.

Mary Jane gave out a sigh. "Peter. There's a thing I need to tell you. I haven't been really honest."

"What do you mean, sweetie?"

"Well... You see, I haven't been as okay as I told you. Sometimes, when I get hurt, I have these heavy shakings. I have these recurrent nightmares every time I fall asleep, and tonight, when I got shot... I think I changed."

Peter did not quite followed. "Changed? How do you mean?"

"I'm not sure, it's all so fuzzy. It was like I was dreaming. I changed into... something, and while doing so... I felt great. The pain disappeared and I felt stronger... I'm not sure how to describe it. I couldn't control myself, I felt like I was on some kind of drug... It felt like those times when I was transformed into that OZ-goblin-thing after that clone abducted me. I- I'm sorry that I didn't told you about it when I should have..."

Peter put his hand on MJ's cheek to calm her down. "It's okay. The only thing that matters now is that you're alive, we can talk about it tomorrow when you're feeling better. I promised Reed and Sue to gave them a phone call tomorrow and have you in for a check up. I'm sure they can figure out what's going on."

MJ nodded and put her hand over Peters. "Okay. Thanks, Tiger, for being so understanding."

"You're welcome. Listen..." Peter said. "I hate to leave you like this, but you need to rest, so I'm gonna let you get some sleep."

He stood up and was about to head for the window, but MJ held on to his hand so he couldn't leave.

"MJ...?"

"Peter, please stay with me tonight."

Peter got the look of a deer caught in headlights.

"Whu-whu-what? MJ... I-I-I thought we talked about this... a-and I don't think that y-you're in the best condition right now for..."

Mary Jane gave her boyfriend a warm smile. "No, I don't mean it like THAT, Tiger. I just... I just don't want to be alone right now. Please, can't you stay here with me?"

Peter gulped. "I... I guess so. If you really feel like you can't be alone, okay."

MJ let go of his hand, lifted the bed cover and patted a spot on the bed right next to her, showing Peter where she wanted him so to speak. Peter hesitated for a short moment, then sat down on the bed.

"Ah-ah Tiger. Dirty clothes off."

Now Peter started to get a little pale. He got up again and took of his slacks, revealing a pair of white briefs. The whole scene made MJ giggle.

"Can I- can I keep my shirt on?" Peter asked nervously. MJ nodded.

Peter crawled down in bed right next to MJ while she pulled the cover over their legs and waist.

"Peter, relax." she told him. "I'm not going to molest you."

"You sure about that?"

Peter leaned back on MJ's pillow. She moved closer to him and put her head and her hand over his chest, resting her ear right next to his heart. At first, Peter's whole body was stiff as a board, but after a moment of feeling MJ's breathing against him, he slowly started to loosen up. All his tense muscles started to relax and a feeling of comfort and peace started to came over him. He then put his arm around MJ's waist.

"There we go." MJ said when Peter's nervousness finally went away. "This is nice, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It is."

They laid there for a few minutes in silence, just taking in each others smells and listening to each others breathing. After a while, Peter came to think about something.

"MJ... This might not be the right moment, but I have to ask you."

"Hm?"

"Why Jackpot?"

"What do you mean?" MJ asked back.

"Why did you choose the name Jackpot?"

MJ smiled and looked up at his face. "Don't you remember? That day after school, when you told me about you being Spider-man? Before we were interrupted by your aunt."

Peter thought about it for a second, then the memories started to come back to him.

"Oh yeah, now I remember... You said that I had 'hit the jackpot'. And that was the first time you called me 'Tiger'."

"That's right, you see I wanted to have something that ment something to us. And you know what? I think we both hit the jackpot that day."

Peter smiled back at her. "We sure did. But, you know, I'm pretty much the only one who get that reference."

"Doesn't matter, I think I prefer it that way."

"I just can't belive I didn't get that earlier."

"It's okay, you are after all a guy. You know... one funny thing is, for half a second, I thought about naming myself 'The Redheaded Wonder'."

Peter chest trembled as he tried not to laugh too loud.

"Oh man, that's hilarious. You are a treasure MJ, I love you so much."

"And I love you so much it hurts. You are an amazing guy, Tiger, I am so happy to have you in my life."

"And I'm so happy to have you too."

The young boy kissed his wonderful girlfriend on her head and they both settled down in the bed. Needing not to say any more words, the two teenager slowly drifted of into sleep in each others arms.

* * *

**AN: Next chapter, every teenagers worst nightmare.**


	20. Chapter 20

Mary Jane woke up in the same position she had fallen asleep in, with her head still resting on Peter's chest and his arms wrapped around her. She moved her head a little bit and looked at the alarm clock. It showed 6.40, which meant she hadn't been sleeping for that many hours, but she still felt more rested then if she had slept for twelwe full hours. She then felt Peter beginning to stir under her.

"'Morning, Tiger."

"'Morning, beautiful." Peter said and gave out a big yawn.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" MJ asked.

"It's okay, there's way worse ways to be woken up in."

The two kids greeted each other good morning with a kiss, which made MJ recoil afterwards.

"Hooo... Morning breath." she said. Peter could only chuckle at it.

"How are you feeling?" Peter asked. "Any nightmares?"

"You know what, not a single one. For the first time in over a week I've been sleeping totally peacefully. We should make this more often, you make a fantastic teddy bear."

Peter smiled at her. "I think I would like that. Let's do it again sometime."

Mary Jane took a deep, happy breath and gave out a warm smile as she laid her head back on Peter's chest. "I can't remember the last time I felt this good."

"OH MY GOD! What are you two doing!?"

"MOM!?"

Both kids suddenly lost any trace of sleep in their bodies, they sat up in bed like two winded up toys.

"Get up from there, both of you!" MJ's mother commanded while opening the door wide open from where she had peeked in, wearing her dressing gown.

Peter tumbled out of bed, incredibly imbarrassed, while MJ got up on her legs and wrapped the bed cover around herself, she too blushing all red.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?!" MJ yelled at her mother.

"Don't you raise your voice at me, young lady!" her mother yelled back.

Oh, this was bad. MJ know that when her mom called her 'young lady', it was really bad.

"Not only do you leave the house without saying a word, you stay out 'til midnight on a schoolnight and now I find you two in bed with each other! I thought you knew better then that, Mary Jane!"

Peter, even thought he knew he was gonna regret it, felt he had to brake in. "With- With all the respect, Mrs Watson... We wasn't- I mean--"

"You put your pants back on, young man, and go back home to your house! And trust me, your aunt is gonna hear about this."

Peter took up his slacks and tripped as he stood on one leg and tried to force down one of his feets down the pants leg. The angry mother then lead her daughter and her boyfriend down the stairs and to the hallway and the frontdoor.

"I just hope to god that you two are thinking about safety." Mrs Watson said.

"What?!" MJ said in total shock. "Oh my god! I can't belive you just said that! Aaagh!"

"I, um... I should probably be going." Peter said, although he wasn't really sure of what he should do. "I- I see you you at school, MJ."

MJ walked up to Peter as he open the frontdoor and gave him a big goodbye kiss on the mouth. "Thanks for a wonderful night, Tiger." she told him.

"Yeah... you too." Peter responded, but when he saw Mrs Watson's giving them the evil glare he quickly made his exit. MJ turned around facing her mother.

"I can't believe you kicked him out like that!"

"You got a lot of nerves, young lady. Have you any idea how worried I was about you last night?" her mother responded. "Sneaking out on a schoolnight and smuggling in a boy into your room. Having sex under my roof!"

MJ could not believe what she was hearing. She put her hands to her ears as if she tried to block out her mother's voice.

"My god! Please stop! We weren't doing anything like that! How can you even think that?"

"Because I know how it is to be young and in love, I don't want you to ruin your life by doing something stupid, Mary Jane."

"We. Weren't. Doing. Anything! Peter and I have already talked about THAT, and we decided to wait, if you really have to know!"

The older woman woman crossed her arms. "Just because you say one thing doesn't mean you'll follow it, a lot of things could happen anyway when your young and thoughtless. And Peter is a guy after all."

"WHAT!?! Mom, you know Peter... He would never do anything like that. Don't you trust him? Don't you trust ME?"

"I do trust you, and him. It's you two together that I don't trust."

MJ sat down on the couch and rubbed her temples, this was so frustrating. Then of course her mother had to go and make it even more embarrassing.

"MJ, do you know anything about contraceptions? About condoms and that?"

MJ hid her face in her hands. "Aaaargh god... Yes I do..." she gave out with a weak voice. "I'm SIXTEEN for crying out loud."

"That may be, but I'd still like to talk to you about it."

MJ gave out a long groan.

"And where were you last night by the way, young lady?" her mother asked.

"I- I... I was..." MJ begin to falter, she didn't knew what to answer. She couldn't tell her mother she was out fighting crime and getting shot at.

"Yes?"

"I-I don't wanna say."

"This is not about what you don't want to, I'm your mother and I'm ordering you to tell me where you were last night."

MJ didn't say a word.

"Fine!" her mother said after a long, quiet moment. "If you don't wanna tell me, then don't. I'll find out eventually, and I'm sure May Parker will be on my side on this. Now go up and get dressed, young lady, you have school in a few hours."

Mary Jane got up from the couch and walked up the stairs with her heads hanging down. "Yeah... god forbid I'd miss chemistry." she muttered. When she reached the final step, her mother called out to her again.

"MJ, sweetie?"

"Yeah...?" MJ answered doubtfully.

"Peter is a great guy, isn't he?"

MJ looked back down the stairs and she could see a smile fighting it's way out on her mother's serious face.

"Yeah, he's the greatest."

* * *

It was the last day of school before spring-break, MJ felt better then ever (despite the awkward conversation with her mother) and she was showing it off. Feeling more confident, she had dressed herself in tight jeans and a mint green shirt with the word Beltsville written on the chest with red letters. It basically fit over her like a second skin. This time she didn't cared about all the guys ogling her and the girls giving her mean looks, walking hand in hand with Peter down the hall she proudly showed everybody what her wonderful boyfriend was the only one to get a piece of.

"So..." Peter started after closing his locker. "What did your mother say after I left?"

"Ho-boy..." MJ answered. "Well, I managed to talk her out of grounding me 'til I'm forty, but I'm not allowed to be out after seven PM this weekend. And at breakfast, she tried to had _'the talk'_ with me."

Peter's face showed expressions of both amusement and surprise. "Really? Kids our age usually know everything about that these days."

"Yeah, at the end I had to learn HER a few new things. God it was awkward. What did your aunt say to you after my mom called her?"

"Ugh, she gave me that look I hate. I had to lie to her about last night, and I think she saw right through me. I hate lying to her about this kind of stuff, especially now when she know that I'm _you-know-who_..."

MJ gave out a sigh. "I'm sorry you have to do that for me, Peter."

"It's okay, we can tell her when your ready."

"Heh, isn't it a little funny? Now everybody thinks we're doing the nasty, even thought we're not." MJ said while holding in a small laughter.

"A little." Peter answered, he too finding the situation comical. Then the bell rang in, calling all students in for class.

* * *

If you looked up the word 'Bad girl' in a dictionary, you would very likely find a picture of Circe next to it. Circe was of course not the her real name, but the name the cheerleaders had given her. Her real name was Michelle, and she had got the name Circe because she could turn men into pigs (a unusually smart nickname to come from the cheerleader squad). She liked to steal guys away from their girlfriends, especially those girlfriends that were considered hotter then her, and there wasn't a guy she hadn't have, or tried to have. She had caused more breakups single-handed then any other person on Midtown High. Many guys wanted to update from their regular girlfriends to her, because for some reasons bad girls have a good reputation, at least among the guys. Every girl at school hated her, mostly because half of them had lost a guy to her, but no one was brave enough to stop her, since she was considered crazy and quite dangerous.

Circe was tall, around six feet, and was considered having a very hot body by many young men, while some others were scared by her. Having a semi-punk hairstyle and scandalous clothes, plus a lot of make-up, a pebble in her nose, five earrings in her left ear, and with a bad attitude some people found her quite intimidating. Walking down the hallway, getting a lot of various looks from the other students, she was now on a search for her next prey.

Some rumours had been spreading through the hallways this week. Rumours about how the otherwise sweet and quite plain student Mary Jane Watson had gone away for a sick leave only to return looking like a supermodel, plus that MJ and her boyfriend had been having sex in the girls locker room. Having not even cared about Mary Jane or her nerdy boyfriend before, she was now starting to see competition for the role as top girl at Midtown High. She had to make sure Brainy Jane knew her place.

She noticed Puny Parker, as the jocks called him, with his head in his school locker, and she walked closer to him.

"Hi there, Parker. What are you doing?" she said.

Peter turned around and noticed how the bad girl was leaning her arm against the locker next to him, standing very close to him.

"Um... H-hi, Michelle." Peter said, taken aback. "Ju-just taking out my books."

Michelle then seemed to move closer to Peter, putting him in a awkward position. He could now feel the smell of cigarettes in her breath.

"I have been watching you for a while, Parker."

"H-have you?" Peter asked nervously. "D-do you even know my first name?"

"Do I really need to?" she said in a seductive voice. She moved her body even closer to Peter, and he seemed to shrink in the presence of the taller girl. He was one of those guys that found her intimidating. "You know, I'll never really gone for the whole nerd-thing before. But I'm willing to try since you're so cute."

Peter gulped big time. "Tha-tha-that's nice, but... but you know... I'm already in a reletionship, you know... it's quite serious, you know." he said, trying to turn her down without making her angry.

"I don't see a ring on that finger." she said, and now a pearl of sweat started to appear on Peters forehead. "And just because you're spoken for doesn't mean you can't have a little fun. Come on, I'm sure I can show you things that Brainy Jane would never dream of."

Mary Jane was just done talking with some of the girls in her class and walked off to meet up with Peter at their lockers, whene she saw a sight that made her stop in her tracks. Further down the hall, she could see how the biggest bitch in the entire school was single-handely surrounding her boyfriend, who looked absolutely terrified. MJ didn't need to think for long what she was doing. So she quickly walked up to them.

"What are you doing with my boyfriend?!"

Both Peter and Michelle turned their heads looking at her, and relief washed over Peter's facial expression.

"MJ, thank god!" he cried out as he slipped under Michelle's arm and stepped behind MJ, just like a little kid hiding from danger behind his mother.

Mary Jane looked at the much taller girl with cold eyes. "What do you think you're doing?" she said.

"I'm just showing him what he's could have instead." the bad girl said with a disparaging tone. "It's obvious you can never hold on to him, you two breaking up all the time."

Anger was starting to bubble up inside of MJ, who did this bitch think she was?

"If you really had to go under the knife to keep your boyfriend, it's really obvious that you're not doing a great job with him."

"Under the knife!?!" MJ responded with a shocked expression. Now a ring of people started to gather around the three of them.

"Yeah, you're not fooling anyone that those cheap implants are real, girl."

"Cheap... Implants!?! Why you...!"

MJ was about walk up and hit Michelle, but Peter stopped her.

"MJ! High road, Mary, high road. She aint worth it." he told MJ while holding her back.

At first MJ didn't want to listen to Peter, but she soon realized that she pretty much had to. "Come on, Peter. Let's get out of here." she said as she turned around and started to walk.

Michelle smiled as the two walked away from her, and then yelled; "Next time you two brake up, Parker, come see me! And I'll show you how a real woman handle her men!"

MJ froze on the spot, and her face frowned in mad anger. She then turned around and walked with quick pace back towards the man-eating girl, ignoring her boyfriend's advices to not do anything stupid.

"Oh, did I hit a nerve?" Michelle mocked as the shorter redhead moved closer to her. To her big surprise the smaller girl stepped up and pushed her with great ease into the locker with a loud bang.

There was a large gasp filling the air, and then silence. Michelle got up on her feets, first surprised by the sheer strenght in that push, and then got angry.

"Okay, if that's how you want it, then fine!" she told MJ. "Five minutes, behind gym, don't be late. You'll be sorry you messed with this bitch, Brainy Jane!"

The girl nicknamed Circe walked away with angry steps, leaving MJ stunned by her own reaction in the middle of the crowd. She looked at Peters face and saw that he was just as much taken back as she was. What she put herself into now?


	21. Chapter 21

It's amazing how fast the word can spread in only five minutes. A large crowd of students had now gathered behind the gym during the lunch hour, expecting quite a show. Michelle, or Circe, stood in the middle of the ring with a smug on her face, looking pretty self-confident. MJ was facing her, not really enjoying this quite as much. The guys watching seemed, however, to enjoy it. Several of the jocks had joined together and started cheering "Catfight! Catfight! Catfight!"

Peter was definitely not among those guys, in fact he would rather have MJ fighting Norman Osborn then doing this. Not only could she accidently give away her secret identity, she could also hurt her opponent real bad, and he had now idea how MJ's wound was gonna affect it all. MJ could actually get really hurt despite her powers. In short, Peter was worried sick.

"Okay. Let's get started." Michelle said as she stepped closer to MJ and raised her hands into fists.

"I- I don't wanna fight you, Michelle..." MJ said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't wanna fight me either."

Michelle launched a punch against Mary Jane's face, which the smaller girl dodged pretty easy. She then tried to punch MJ with her other fist, but hit only air.

"Stand still you little skank!" Michelle cried out.

"Come on, Michelle! Hit her already!" some guy yelled. And hadn't Peter been so anxious by the situation right now, he would have given that guy a pounding of his own. On Peter's other side, Flash Thompson was watching the fight with much interest.

"Wow, Parker!" he said. "I can't believe those two girls are fighting over YOU!" Peter did however not find it as amusing as Flash did.

MJ had a terrified look on her face, she didn't know what to do. She saw one of Michelle's fist coming flying against her, and she reached up her arm and blocked the punch.

"What are you, some kind of black belt?" Michelle yelled as she tried so hard to land a single punch on MJ.

"Y-yeah..." MJ managed to blurt out. She looked over at Peter's way, and he looked just as scared as she felt. She could see how he mouthed words with his lips and shaked his head at her, trying to tell her to not do anything stupid.

Then suddenly, MJ felt a great pain in her wounded shoulder and fell down to her knees. "Aaahhh...!" she cried out. It wasn't that Michelle's punch had hurt her, but all the nerves in her shoulder was reacting to the pressure in it, causing her entire arm to start aching like hell.

MJ looked up at the bad girl standing over her, noticing Michelle cracking her knuckles.

"So much for those fancy karate moves. Don't worry, when I'm done with your face, Peter don't wanna be seen with you anyway."

_"OKAY! That does it! This bitch is going down!"_ MJ thought, and within one second she had moved her weight, leaned on her healthy arm and whisked her leg in a semicircle in front of her with great speed, making Michelle trip.

Michelle fell backwards and landed on her butt, and when she was trying to get up, Mary Jane stood up and had already turned the tables in her own favor. MJ sent out a punch that connected with Michelles nose and the bitch fell back to the ground as the crowd went silent.

First Peter was worried that MJ had used too much of her strenght, but Michelle only gave out a groan in minor pain. MJ seemed to only have given her a quick smack, causing Michelles nose to bleed and some of the cartilage to break. Nothing that couldn't happen on any other football game on a sunday afternoon with the family. Michelle staggered up from the ground, turned tail and ran away from the amazed crowd while holding her swollen, bruised nose, trying to stop the bleeding.

MJ, feeling pretty proud from winning without outing herself, yelled after her; "And stay away from my man!!!"

All the girls in the audience and several of the guys let out a roar like a sports audience who's team just had made a field goal, they surrounded MJ and started to give her hugs and tap her back while yelling out congratulations to her. "That was awesome, MJ!" "Yeah, like Karate Kid-awesome!" "That sure showed her!" "She totally deserved it!" "She aint pretty no more!" "Where did you learn to do that?" "You are SO invited to my sweet sixteen!" was among the many cheers MJ heard.

MJ managed to push herself out of the group of teenagers and walked up to Peter, who had a expression of both relief and pride on his face. One of the girls yelled out "Kiss!" towards them, and they happily obliged. Their lips met in a long kiss while the crowd around them cheered out loudly. When their mouths finally split up, MJ took Peter by the hand and started to lead him away from her new fan-club.

"Come on Tiger."

"Where are we going?"

"Anywhere else. You're my trophy now and I would like to enjoy you on my own."

The two of them quickly left their schoolmates and sneaked away somewhere were they didn't had to deal with any more drama.

* * *

Right now, Mary Jane was now somewhat of the queen of Midtown Highschool. Everybody wanted to hear how she had teached the biggest bitch in the whole school a lesson she wouldn't forget, and half of all the girls told her how she had managed to do what they all wanted to do. MJ was worried some people might think it was suspicious that she manage to win a fight with a dangerous girl like Michelle, but those worries disappeared when she overheard one of the male students talk with one of his friends.

"Dude, don't you think Watson looks just like that Jackpot on the news?"

"Mary Jane Watson? Haven't you seen Jackpot? She's like a whole foot taller then Watson, AND she got a way bigger rack then her."

"Yeah, guess you're right."

MJ had to put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing, these guys were unbelievable. Otherwise, this day flew by smoothly. After the last class, MJ even ran into Michelle in the hallway, with her nose patch up and cotton sticking out of her nostrils, and when she saw MJ, she ran the other way. MJ couldn't help but feel proud of herself.

* * *

Peter earlier called Reed and had made a time to take MJ in for a check-up right after school. Since the weather was so lovely, they decided to walk all the way to The Baxter Building. Sure it was a long walk, but superstamina tend to help. This also gave them time talk to each other about stuff they felt was needed to be said.

"...and I felt hurt because it seemed like you didn't want me with you. You asked if they could remove my powers and all, like my opinion didn't matter to you." MJ said as they walked hand in hand along the sidewalk.

Peter rubbed his neck with his free hand, feeling a bit guilty. "I'm sorry you felt that way, MJ. Of course your opinion matters to me, it's just- I just didn't wanted your life to be as screwed up as mine is. And to be honest, I'd rather have you living a normal, boring and safe life then being stuck in this crap. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel."

"It's okay, I understand."

"But it doesn't mean that I don't like having you as my partner. I have a great time busting criminals with you, and I'm happy knowing you can defend youreself. Now- Now when I've taken all this in, I'm actually glad it happen'd. You just have to practise on a few things."

MJ nodded. "I know what you mean, Tiger. You think you can teach me?"

"Of course I can, I'll teach everything I know. That should take about... five minutes." he joked. "Trust me, you're amazing and with a little help, you can go far. If we just do this together, nothing can go wrong."

He smiled at MJ, and she smiled back. They then rounded a corner and the shining skyscraper of the Baxter building towered up above them.

"Well, we're here. Let's go see the doctors." Peter said as they walked in throught the entrance.

* * *

Reed and Susan met up with Mary Jane and Peter as the two younger heroes stepped out of the elevator.

"MJ, Peter." Sue greeted them. "How are you two doing? Was security any problem?"

"No, the guys with the robber gloves was quite gentle." Peter joked.

"They didn't even touch me." MJ followed up. "Makes you wonder."

Reed had MJ change into a hospital gown and step into the medical room. There he carefully removed MJ's badage, much more cool-headed then Peter did, being a real doctor and all, and examined her wound.

"This looks great, MJ." he said. "I think we can already remove the stitches. It's amazing to see how fast your skin regenerates."

Reed then took out a pair of tweezers and started to carefully pull out the suture from MJ's shoulder. "Tell me, MJ," he said while doing it. "Peter said on the phone that you mention something about 'changing'?"

"Well, yeah..." MJ answered a little uncomfortable. "When I was shot, I kinda transformed. I'm not sure how to tell you, but it felt just like when I was changed by the Oz the first time, from that deranged clone thing."

"Mhm." Mister Fantastic said as he took out the last of the surgical suture and instead took out a syringe. "I could take a blood sample and see if there's any change in your DNA, if you don't mind?"

MJ shaked her head and showed up her forearm for Reed to take some blood from. After which he said; "That should do it. You can get dreesed now if you want."

Mary Jane walked behind a screen Richard had pulled up and started to change back into her regular outfit while Reed put her blood in the computer and started to study her DNA-chain. At the same time, Susan turned to Peter.

"How are YOU feeling about this, Pete?" she asked.

"Me? Why do you ask?"

"Seeing loved ones going through such hard things can be very tough, and I saw how worried you were when you brought MJ here last night. I'm just wondering how you're holding up?"

"Fine. Well- not fine, but close. Last night was scary, but I'm happy she's feeling all better again." Peter answered.

Sue nodded.

"Hey... Where's Johnny and Ben by the way?" Peter wondered. "You think that seeing MJ half-naked isn't something ol' Flamebrain would miss out."

"Oh Johnny is taking Ben to a Nascar race somewhere, I'm not sure where he said. For some promotion-thing."

MJ then stepped out from behind the screen and joined her friends in the conversation.

"Can I get you anything, MJ?" Sue asked.

"Well, surprise surprise, I'm hungry."

Susan smirked. "I'll go after the energy bars."

"How are you feeling?" Peter asked Mary Jane when Sue left.

"Good, I guess. Nice to be rid of the suture, though. They kind of itched."

Susan soon returned with a invisible tray of candy bars, which MJ gladly took from her and sat down on a chair with.

"How are you doing over there, honey?" Sue asked Reed.

"Just a second, Suzie." Reed called back.

Peter, sitting down next to MJ, reached out his arm and tried to take one of MJ's chocolate bars, just to try out how they tasted, but she slapped him on the back of his hand and he quickly pulled his arm back.

"You know," Reed said. "I can't find anything that's different from last time you gave me a sample. MJ, do you think you can describe how it felt when you changed into... what ever it was?"

MJ swallowed down a big mouth full of chocolate. "It's hard to say, there was so much adrenaline I can't really remember clearly. But in a way, it felt good. I felt stronger, faster, the pain disappeared. And all the emotions..."

"What kind of emotions?" Susan asked.

"Well, mostly rage, I think. It was so strange, even thought I was aware of what I was doing, it was like my brain was on autopilot. I could have stop myself, but I didn't want to."

Reed rubbed his jaw. "I'm not sure, but I think we're dealing with a kind of defense mechanism. When your having severe trauma, the mutated cells in your body goes through a reaction that causes you to become stronger and more like the redfurry Oz-goblin-thing we already seen. I think it's some kind of a fight-or-flight-mode."

"Is there... is there anything you can do about it?" Mary Jane asked.

"I don't think we can do that without damaging your DNA, or removing your powers entirely. No, I think that you should focus more on sheer willpower to prevent it. Who knows, maybe you even learn how to control these transformations one day. I doubt this will give you any trouble, but if there's any problems at all, I want you to call me."

Peter and MJ agreed to do that, and after that, there wasn't much left for them to do here. Sue and Reed followed them to the elevator where they bid goodbye.

"Thanks again, so much." Peter told them. "I don't know what we would do without you guys."

"Don't mention it. It's what friends do." Sue said.

"Friends with a multi-billion dollar laboratory." Reed quickly added.

* * *

After stepping out out from the entrence of The Baxter building, MJ stopped for a while, leaned her head up and just took in the sunlight.

"So how are you feeling, emotionally I mean?" Peter asked her.

"I'm not sure." she answered. "I guess I'm fine, but I'm not feeling like I can jump back into the game right away. Plus I have to make a new suit again. Do you- do you think it's selfish of me to take this weekend off? From the whole crime-fighting thing?"

"Not at all." Peter told her. "Even heroes need to take a vacation now and then, especially after going through something like this. You just sit back and get your groove back, leave the butt-kicking to me. You'll jump back into the game when you're feeling ready for it."

MJ smiled and put her arms around Peter's waist. "Thanks Tiger. You're sweet taking such good care of me." She then sined up like she got the best thought in her entire life. "Ooh! I just had an idea. Let's go to the beach."

"The beach?"

"Yeah! Tomorrow, after I'm done with work, let's go to Coney Island beach, just you and me. We can bring something to eat and have all kinds of fun."

"I don't know, sweetie. Sun and bathe isn't really my thing."

"I'll wear my new bikini."

"It's a date then!"


	22. Chapter 22

Working was, as usual, hell. But at least it kept MJ's anticipation up. After work, she went straight home and packed a picnic basket full with food and stuffed her backpack with beach things, like towels, sunblock and bikini and stuff. She then went over to Peter's house where he waited for her.

"So, ready to go, Tiger? If we go now we might catch the bus." MJ said as Peter opened the door for her.

"Just one more second, sweetie." Peter told while fixing his bag. MJ then noticed that there was a red piece of clothing sticking out of it.

"Peter, you're not taking your suit with you, are you? I was kind of hoping that this would be our day off, just the two of us and no superhero-stuff."

Peter thought about it, then looked at MJ and smiled consentient. "You're right, MJ. I'll leave this at home." He then took out his Spider-man suit and threw it through the door to his room, letting it lie on his bed. "But I take the webshooters with me. You never know when they can come in handy."

That was fair enough for MJ.

* * *

The two young lovers had reached their goal. After a long ride, involving several bus changes, they could now feel the sand between their toes. There were many people there, many have had the same brilliant idea to spend the first day of springbreak on Coney Island, but the beach was not as crowded as usually was later on the season. Peter gazed out over the ocean, shading his eyes with his hands as he did, and said;

"Dang it's hot out here."

MJ spread out a wide blanket on the sand, opened up her parasol and stuck it into the ground.

"This is really nice." she said. "It's been a while since we just hang out like normal people, without any super-loonys or gunfights or other crazy stuff."

"Or without any high school drama nightmares, for that matter." Peter added. "You know, yesterday, I'm sure I saw Mr DePalma catching an eye-full of you during class."

"Ewwww... That's so gross, he's like three times our age. A teacher should know better then that."

"Well, the man's only mortal. A creepy mortal that is."

The two of them started to change their clothes. Peter had come up with the smart idea to wear his swimming trunks under his regular outfit, so he just needed to take off his pants and he was done. Mary Jane on the other hand wrapped her beach towel around her chest, covering up everything from there down to her knees, and started to carefully wriggle out of her clothes. Then she carefully put on her bikini without dropping the towel.

MJ turned around and noticed that Peter still had his shirt on. "Peter, you can't go into the water with that on."

"I know, I'm just... I'm just a little uncomfortable." he told her while gently blushing.

"Petey, I've seen you without your shirt. Half of this town has seen you without your shirt."

"I know but... I'm pretty pale, you know, spending all day in a full-body covering suit and all. I'm not really beach material."

"Nonsense poopypants." MJ said, trying to cheer up her boyfriend's low self-esteem. "You got a great body, Tiger. And besides, getting some sun is what we're here for. Now strip, Parker." she commanded.

Peter did as she said and took off his shirt, revealing his well-trimmed upper body.

"There we go." MJ said as she let her hand gently stroke Peter's pecs. "That's not too shabby, huh? With muscles like yours, it would be a shame not to show them off, Peter. Okay, my turn now."

She stepped back and slowly unwrapped the towel she had around her and then let it fall to the ground, and Peters jaw fell with it. He was totally flabbergasted by the sight in front of him. Before him, MJ was wearing a dark red two top bikini that showed of every curve on her feminine, hourglass shaped body without being scandalous. Peter looked at her all the way down from her cute little feets, up over her well-sculptured leg and feminine hips, with her bikini bottom elegently hiding her more private parts. Peter's eyes slowly moved up, following MJ's flat, sexy stomach towards the bikini top that held her breathtaking busom in place. His eyes stayed there for a moment before he finally moved his gaze up to MJ's beautiful face. Her long, luscious red hair rested beautifully upon her slender shoulders and her emerald green eyes made his heart melt. A warm smile of joy, and a little shyness, was on her rosy lips.

"Wow... MJ-- Wow!" Peter managed to speak out. "You... you look awesome."

"I thought you'd say something like that." MJ said, delighted that she had made such an effect on him.

Peter moved a little closer to her, and laid his fingertips on her left shoulder. Were there yesterday had been a nasty wound scab, there was now only a pale spot below her clavicle where MJ's skin had now fully healed up.

"Yeah, I'm pretty stunned about it too, think just two days ago there was a hole there." MJ said. "It's quite amazing, isn't it?"

"It sure is."

"Come on now Tiger. Race you to the water."

The young girl speeded of towards the edge of the water, and Peter followed right behind her. As their feets reached the salty surfs, Peter came up side by side with MJ. They stopped when the water reached up to just below their waist.

"I won!" MJ cried out with joy and made a little jump up in the air.

"Did not!" Peter teased her playfully.

"Did too!"

"Did not."

"Did too!" MJ said and splashed some water on Peter.

First, Peter was taken by surprise, then he got an evil smile on his face. And Mary Jane understood what that meant.

"Peter, don't you dare!" she warned him.

"Oh I dare." Peter said as he lifted MJ up in his arms.

"Peter I swear I'll kill you- Eeeee!!!"

MJ shrieked as Peter throw her into the water with a splash. When she got up on her legs again, all wet, she looked at Peter and pretended to be mad, but her face just shined of joy.

"You are so dead, Tiger."

* * *

After about thirty minutes or so, the two kids got back to their spot on dry land, both of them soaking wet and laughing from all the fun they were having.

"So... How about some food?" MJ said as she dryed off her hair with her towel. "I'm so hungry I'll might start eating that gum under my shoe."

Peter sat down on the blanket and started to unpack the food they had brought with them. On the menu they had sandwiches with cheese and roastbeef, and with lemonade to drink. After which MJ took out a piece of chocolate cake as dessert.

"Peter. Would you mind putting this sunblock on my back?" MJ said as they had finished the last piece of cake.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

MJ handed Peter the bottle of sun lotion and laid down on her stomach. She then put her arms around her back and carefully untied the top of her bathing suit and let it lie between her breast and the ground. Peter hesitated at first, feeling the heat travel to his cheeks, then slowly started to rub the sunblock over MJ's lovely shoulder blades.

"Say something, Peter." MJ said after a long, awkward silence.

"Whu-what?"

"Stop being so quiet. You're a talker, usually you can't keep your mouth shut. But now- It's awkward when you're this quiet."

"Heh, sorry... You're just making me a little nervous here." Peter said with a smirk on his face.

"I don't get it. You undressed me just the other night without problems, but now my back makes all your blood move away from your head?"

"That was different. Your life was hanging on a thread that night, but now... Well, I am a guy, MJ. And you're so beautiful."

Mary Jane smiled and crossed her arms under her chin, resting her head in the sand, she couldn't deny that the truth. After a while, two teenage boys, about a year or two younger then MJ and Peter, passed by them. These two boys noticed MJ as they walked past her, and while trying to take a good look of her, they tripped over a overweight, middle-age woman who was bissy sunbathing, and she gave them a scolding they wouldn't forget in a long time.

"Pfft, have they never seen a girl before?" MJ said as she sat up and tied back her top.

"None as good-looking as you, Red." Peter answered.

"Flatterer."

Mary Jane was quiet for a moment, thinking about something. Then she said; "Peter, maybe you can answer this for me?"

"Answer what?"

"Well, you been a hero longer then I've been, so you might know this. How come all superheroines look like this?"

"Look like how?" Peter wondered.

"You know... Like this." MJ said and held her hands in front of her chest, mimicing someone with a unusually large busom.

"Oh..." Peter said as he got it. "There's, yeah... there's not really a good answer to that, but I have a theory."

"Do tell."

"Well, you know... Some superheroes get their powers from the sun, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, they absorb solar energy into their body, and energy is usually stored in the body as fat cells. Woman's breast contains fat, right? People are bombarded with solar energy all the time and therefore the heroines can't possibly burn everything quick enough. Ergo, the more energy they have stored, the bigger the chest. That's my theory."

MJ chuckled at Peter's answer. "Wow, you really put some thought into that. So you mean that if I just stay out here in the sun long enough, I'll need to find a bigger top?"

"If I'm lucky, yeah."

Now MJ started to laugh. "You big goof."

* * *

After an hour or two in the sun, the two teenagers left the beach and was now strolling down the boardwalk, holding hands and eating from the ice cream cones they just had bought. They looked at all the shops they passed, talked about anything and was having a great time together.

"Come again?" MJ asked.

"I'm just saying, the Twilight-movies are overrated. I don't care for them at all." Peter answered.

"You ARE a weird guy."

"Who's the weird one here? The weird guy or the girl who's dating the weird guy."

"Fine. You got me there." MJ said as she shrug her shoulders.

MJ took another lick on her ice cream. It was strawberry, her favorite.

"Peter, after this, I was thinking that we could go out on a shopping spree. I need some stuff so I can make a new suit."

"You mean YOU are gonna go out on a shopping spree. I'm just gonna end up carrying all the stuff, right?"

MJ patted Peter's head like he was a obedient puppy and said; "Good boy." Peter smiled and just enjoyed the pat on his head. But then a bang could be heard in the distance, coming inwards from the more crowded streets.

"I-I-I think that was a gunshot..." MJ said, taken quite back.

Peter took a deep breath. "Okay, you stay here while I check it out. I'll be back in a jiffy." He kissed MJ on her head, handed her his ice cream and then ran off, fishing his webshooters out of his pockets.

MJ sat down on a bench and gave out a sigh, hearing that gunshot had scared her more then she wanted to admit, even though it was low and far away. She was probably still shaken from the other night she thought. As she waited, a guy walked up towards her. He was about twenty-five or so, probably older, and looked just like you expect a surfer to do.

"Hey babe." he said as he came up to MJ.

Mary Jane looked up at the guy with an annoyed expression and said; "I'm sixteen, you creep."

The surfer quickly walked the other way, whistling innocently as he left, while MJ returned to enjoying her ice cream.

Peter returned soon, surprising MJ how fast he had managed to finish his _job_.

"Wow, Tiger. That was-" MJ took a look at her wristwatch. "That didn't even took a minute."

"Piece a cake." Peter said as he sat down next to MJ and got his vanill cone back. "It was just some lonely punk robbing a food joint. Luckily no one got hurt, he had just fired off a shot in the ceiling to scare people with. He tried to get away on foot, but I gave him the old thwip-thwip and left him hanging like the worlds ugliest christmas tree ornament."

"Without your suit?" MJ asked, feeling a little guilty that she talked him out of bringing it with him.

"Didn't need it. I kept myself hiding on the roofs, nobody saw me and the punk didn't even get a chanse to understand what happen'd."

MJ sighed. "We just can't get one single day off, can we?"

"It's our curse. Hey, you already finish your ice cream?"

"Yeah..." MJ said, a little ashamed that she hadn't been able to control her sweet tooth.

"Well... Wanna share mine?"

MJ smiled as Peter held out his ice cream so they both could enjoy it. They took a taste of it at the same time, their noses gently touching each other while they did so. When MJ took her lips from the ice cream, she noticed how Peter's upper lip was covered in the sweet dairy product.

"Let me help you with that." she said as she put her lips to Peter's and removed the vanilla-flavored dessert with one gentle kiss. "Mm..." MJ moaned as she took in the flavor and licked her own lips.

"Heh, don't get any ideas now, Miss Watson." Peter chuckled.

"Who? Me, Mister Parker? Never. Come on now, my trusty mule, I saw a store I'd like to check out."

MJ and Peter spend the next few hours going through store to store. Peter, being a guy, thought of the shopping as less fun then MJ did, but he still enjoyed doing it with her. After MJ had bought all the material she needed, the two lovers decided it was time to go home. So they headed to the bus stop and took the next bus back home to Queens.

* * *

SMACK

Mary Jane's fist connected with Peter's face, making him stagger a step back.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry! Was it too much?" MJ asked as she had asked so many times this evening.

"It's okay, that was actually pretty good." Peter answered as he rubbed his sore cheek. He had to suck it up, it was his idea after all. The hard part had been convincing MJ about it. "I think you got now. That was barely a slap to me, but if you were fighting a normal guy, that would knock him out without hurting him to much. Just keep practising that and remember to put you elbow into it."

After the two teenagers had come home to Mary Jane's house and stepped into her room, Peter had talked her into using him as a training dummy to practise her hits. MJ had off course not liked the idea, but Peter had convinced her that it was the best they could do for now, and luckily MJ's mother wasn't home to hear them. Now when they were almost done, a small bruise had started to develop on Peter's cheek.

"Does it hurt?" MJ asked.

"Only a little bit." Peter answered.

"Then why don't you let me kiss the owie away." MJ said and kissed Peter on his aching cheek to get his mind off the pain. Then she kissed him again, this time little closer to his lips. And then she kissed him a third time, this time on his lips.

"Heh... You know, that actually worked. You got some kind of super-healing-saliva too?" Peter asked as they broke off for air.

"Nope, just the superpower of love, Tiger. Now, we got to do something about that black and blue mark on your face." MJ said and picked up something from her desk. "Let's try this."

"Make-up?" Peter said as he noticed the little jar of foundation.

"Don't judge it till you tried it." MJ said and started to apply the cosmetic powder to Peter's face. "There we go, take a look." she said when she finished.

Peter looked at his reflection in MJ's mirror, and he actually liked the result. "Wow, I should had thought about this a long time ago. Then I woudn't had to give ridiculous explanations to Aunt May why my face looked like it been thrown into a brick wall. Which it did."

"Yeah, but you might had to explain why you spent all your money on make-up instead."

"Make-up AND body-tight spandex."

The two of them could then hear how a key was put in the lock of the front door downstairs and the how the door opened. "Mary Jane, are you home?" a woman's voice yelled.

"I'm in my room, Mom!" MJ yelled back before she turned back to Peter and whispered. "You should probably go. She might still be a little grouchy about the sleepover-thing."

"Okay, I'll sneak out the window." Peter whispered back to her and grabbed his belongings.

MJ gave Peter a goodbye hug before the brown-haired boy opened her window and jumped out, waving goodbye to her as he sneaked off back home to his place. MJ made a little pirouette on the floor of her room, blissful over the day she had, and then walked down the stairs to grab herself some dinner.


	23. Chapter 23

Sunday was a slow day. Most of it, MJ spent the day working. She was running low on cash again, so she had to squeeze in as many working hours as possible. And on her free time, she made herself a new suit. Actually, she made herself three new suits, so she now had several fallbacks in case the one she was gonna use was destroyed (and judging from experience, there's a big chanse it would). She couldn't understand why she was so hopeless at keeping her costume intact.

With Peter bissy doing his work at the Bugle and with Spider-man-things, so MJ was alone all day. Her mom was home, but Mrs Watson barely saw her daughter who had locked herself in her room. Only when her mother called her down for dinner did Mary Jane came out to joined her. Mrs Watson couldn't help but think that something suspiscious was going on and demanded that MJ showed her what she was doing in there, much to MJ's irritation. But MJ had already managed to stow away her half-made suit into her closet, so her mother didn't find anything she would find strange. Truthfully, MJ suspected that her mom just checked her room to see if Peter managed to sneak into their house.

On that evening, MJ thought long and hard about if she should hop back into the saddle right away, now when she had taken the weekend to get back her mojo. After hours of thinking, she decided that it would be for the best if she took the bull by the horns, so she went to bed knowing that her vacation was over. Even though she thought that it was for the best, the last thing she felt before she fell asleep was anxiety.

* * *

Since MJ was free on Monday, she slept that morning in. She thought, this towns crime probably wouldn't mind that she started late. Waking up sometime between ten and eleven, she quickly made herself breakfast, then she stuffed her suit down her backpack and headed out the door.

_"Okay, let's get this started allready."_ MJ thought when she started to change into her superhero outfit. She scratched an itch she had on the shoulder she had been shot in, all the exposion to the sun two days ago had erased any trace of the wound she had earlier.

Soon after, Mary Jane was moving along the Queens-side of the East river. Or rather, the rooftops along the river. Jumping or climbing over any obstackle, sliding down rails and leaping over large gaps, she looked like a parkour practician in a unusually colorful outfit.

_"Wow. This is so awesome."_ MJ thought as she tic taced up against a wall, jumped over a pipe and ran towards the edge of the roof. She leaped twenty feet from the building to another, and landed with a graceful diving roll on a rooftop slightly lower then the one she jumped off. She jump back up on her legs, unharmed from a landing that would had had injured a normal person.

_"I seem to have a knack for this. Guess you could say that I have... Parkour-luck."_ She know she had to tell Peter that joke later on.

Her fun ended quickly, because soon Mary Jane could hear someone honking a car horn awefully much and people screaming. MJ checked were the racket seemed to be coming from, and further down the street there was a bus that seemed to be going way too fast. The bus was speeding down the street, people walking over the crosswalk jumped out of the way as they saw it coming, luckily there was very few cars on the street this time of the day, otherwise the bus would had collided in them with a huge crash. The busdriver tried to slow down the out of control vehicle as best as he could, but it seemed like the brakes on it had just stopped working.

MJ had only seconds to act, she jumped down the wall and moved down a fire escape like some kind of agile jungle animal. She jumped of the fire escape and landed on the roof of a newsstand. If she moved her head to her left, she could see the bus racing towards her spot. She heard how the busdriver honked the horn to warn people in front of him, and there was a loud screech as the side of the bus scraped against several parked cars.

MJ then looked to the right and saw something that petrified her. A little girl ran out to the middle of the street, trying to catch small dog that ran in front of her. As the little girl managed to catch up with the dog and pick it up in her arms, the bus was rushing right towards her. The girl froze as she heard the busdrivers honking and saw the giant bus moving towards her with great speed.

"KID! MOVE!!!" MJ yelled out, but the girl was either to terrified or didn't hear her. MJ made a great jump and landed in the middle of the street, about ten feet in front of the girl, standing between her and the bus that was moving closer and closer. She prayed to god that this was gonna work as she braced her entire body and prepared for the impact.

There was a loud bang and then a thud as the bus stopped, it's back part and rear wheels lifted a few feet up in the air and then fell back on the ground. The heroine Jackpot took her hands off the bus, stepped back and checked that nobody had got hurt. She then gave out a groan from the aching in her arms and legs that her stunt had caused.

"Ooooowwwwww..."

Jackpot had managed to stop the bus, simply using her strenght, by catching it by the front and pushing against it, stopping its momentum. When doing so, she had slided about six feet closer towards the little girl and her dog, making this a close call. The girl's parents ran out and started to smother their child in hugs and kisses while giving Jackpot tearful thank-you's. The young hero looked at the busdriver in the windshield, both him and his passengers looked shocked but very grateful that the horrifying ride was over. Luckily, nobody seemed to have been seriously hurt.

Several people gathered in a circle around the bus, and they started to clap their hands. Cameras and cellphones started to flash as people took pictures of the superheroine in front of them. MJ, starting to feel a bit proud of herself, took a deep bow to her fans.

"Eh, this was nothing. I catch this bus every day." she joked before she jumped up on the bus roof and then leaped away over the buildings.

MJ hopped back up on a rooftop, and stayed there for a while so that she could look out over the street. She saw the police and paramedics arrived to the scene, and she smiled to herself, feeling pretty good at being back in the game again.

"Oh yeah. Jackpot's back, baby."

* * *

Outside a pawnshop in the fringe area of Spanish Harlem, the colorful superhero the amazing Spider-man was bissy doing what a young superhero does best. Namely beating the crap out of a group of street gangsters.

"I can't believe you guys didn't invite me to your little party here. I mean, come on, if any one can raise the roof it's me. What you guys have here right, it's... it's just sad."

The group of criminals, about eight of them, had tried to rob the pawnshop of everything in it till the webswinging hero showed up. Now several of these thugs was regretting even leaving their beds this morning.

Two of them tried to run away while Spidey was occupied with their friends, seeing a chanse to get out of here without being arrested or punched in the face. However, their chanse disappeared fast when someone dressed in gold and green with long red hair landed in front of them, blocking their way of escape. Jackpot smiled as she noticed how terrifed the two punks got.

"Well hello there, stranger." the young redhead said to the Spider as she pummeled the two punks down. "Mind if I join you?"

"Oh I don't know, good-looking. My girlfriend would be terribly jealous if she found out that I hang around with such a beautiful woman." Spider-man answered as he kicked one punk in the stomach while looking at Jackpot in the same time.

"She better live with it, Tiger. When in costume, you're mine."

Jackpot blocked a punch from one of the thugs and then tossed him into a dumpster, she then moved in and stopped another guy from cutting her boyfriend in the back with a knife. She easily twisted the knife out of the guys hand and then punch him in the face, with the exact amount of force that Peter had taught her, knocking the man unconscious.

"Thanks Red." Spider-man said as he knocked down his last punk. "But I could have handled it myself you know."

"Sure you could."

Now there was only one criminal left, and he was making a run for it. He desperadly tried to climb over a fence without beeing noticed, but instead he just made a lot of noice that caught the two heroes attention.

"Awww, aint that cute, he's trying to get away." Jackpot said.

"You wanna or shall I?" Spider-man asked.

"But then I have to go all the way over there..."

"Fine, I'll do it."

The fleeing street mobster had finally managed to get over the fence, only to be yanked back against it by a string of spiderweb that had flied between the holes in it, and was covered in more of it that stuck him to the fence.

"Nicely done, partner." Jackpot said while she moved closer to the red-blue wearing boy and wrapped her arms around him.

"Ouch!" Spider-man suddenly cried. "Careful, I'm still feeling off that sunburn from the other day."

"I'd told you to wear a stronger sunblock."

Spider-man took Jackpot by her waist and webswinged away with her, leaving the Harlem gang webbed down and wrapped up for the police who would arrive soon.

"Nice of you to drop by." Peter said as they landed up on a roof. He pulled his mask up, revealing his mouth, and gave MJ a smooth on the cheek.

"Well I had to make sure you didn't go and fall in love with some other brand new superhero." Mary Jane joked while she laid her arm, carefully, around Peter's waist.

"Ugh, I knew that was gonna come back to bite me. So, how did you found me?"

"I heard your wise cracks from miles away." MJ joked again. "I just followed the smell of your jokes."

"Ha ha, really cute. You're in a better mood today, I hear."

"Much better. I just needed to take a short time-out, but now I'm back!"

"Yeah, in costume and all. I see you're still going with the disco-pants. What happen'd, you got them delivered to your house by a DeLorean or something?"

MJ punched Peter playfully on the shoulder, unfortunately his sunburn made it feel less playful then it was.

"Don't you mock the costume, Tiger, it makes me look goo-ood. Besides, I think you're just jealous that you can't pull this off as good as I do."

Peter rolled his eyes behind the mask, MJ's joking showed that he might had teached her a little too much. "If that's what you think, then fine. I'm just glad to have my favorite sidekick back." he said.

Jackpot looked at Spider-man with a puzzled look.

"Sidekick? Why am I your sidekick all the sudden? I thought I was your partner."

"No no." Spider-man teased, he was getting back at her now. "First you have to be a sidekick, THEN you get promoted to full-time partner. If you don't believe me, ask Dick Grayson. But tell you what, I'll let you be my sidekick for a month, then I'll upgrade you to my partner."

"Gee Mister Spider-man, that would be swell." Jackpot said without that much enthusiasm.

"Don't blame me, blame the system. So, how about we grab some lunch?"

"Lead the way, kemosabe."

"Now you're just being silly."


	24. Chapter 24

"Let me see... Two hot dogs with everything you got, thanks."

"I'll have two hot dogs with everything too."

"Oh yeah, and a coke each, thank you."

The hot dog vendor had lived in New York his entire life and had never seen a superhero in real life. But today he was facing TWO of them, and they were hanging in front of him in a string of web, startling him as they suddenly appeared in front of his cart. He nervously handed the two young heroes their food and accepted their money, then he felt the urge to say something.

"Excuse me... Do you- do you mind if I ask you... Could I take a picture of you two, with me? For my kids?"

"Sure, go ahead." Jackpot said, thrilled about her rising popularity. Spider-man was just glad nobody was throwing stuff at them.

The guy fished out a old camera and asked a woman nearby to take his picture. The woman, equally amazed by the two heroes presence, nodded and aimed the lens at the three of them. The vendor made a silly gesture at the two heroes, as if he tried to point out to his kids that the superheroes was standing right there next to him. Spider-man put his food aside and struck a pose where he was firing invisible weblines at a target outside the cameras sight while Jackpot blew a kiss to the camera as the light flashed. The hot dog guy got his camera back and was incredibly thankful, but when he turned around to thank the two teen heroes, they had already disappeared out of his sight along with their hot dogs. Finally, he thought, he had something exciting to show his children.

A few seconds later the two kids was sitting on an fire ladder eighteen stories above the ground, dangling their legs and munching on their lunches.

"This is some good dogs." MJ said as she swallowed down the last piece of her first hot dog. "But what is that green stuff?"

"Well, um... That is- I think it is..." Peter tried to answer.

"You don't know, do you?"

"Leave me alone."

Mary Jane smiled self-confident over her boyfriend being so nonplussed, something that didn't happen very often, and she was just going to say something when they both could hear a muffled explosion that made the building they sat on shake.

"Always when we're eating!" MJ said with a annoyed tone. "I swear, it's worse then telemarketers."

Then another, louder, explosion could be heard, this time right below their feets. Down on street level, a hole appeared in the wall and out came four people carrying several bags filled with cash. These four men took a quick look around and then ran of into an alley.

"Seems like lunch break is over." Peter said as he pulled down his mask.

"What about our food?"

"Here, let me take that." Pete said as he took his own and MJ's hot dog and hang them up in a line of web high above the ground before they headed after the criminals.

* * *

"Come on guys, hurry up!" The Omega Red said as he waited for his Enforcers to catch up with him.

"Yeah yeah, we're coming." Montana responded.

"Check it out guys, I grabbed a toaster!" Fancy Dan yelled out.

"I love your attitude, Danny. You're an inspiration to us all." Ox said sarcasticly.

"Put the money in the van so we can--"

Omega Red stopped talking as he noticed that their escape route had been caught off by a giant cobweb. So was the way back. Then they heard the sound of two persons landing on a dumpster next to them.

"Hey, look who it is. It's Huey, Dewey, Louie and... Gooey." Spider-man said when he recognised the four criminals.

"Oh man... Now there's two of them." Dan whined.

"That's them!" Jackpot cried out and pointed at Fancy Dan.

"What?"

"That's the guys that shot me! The short one, he did it!"

"Oh really?" Spidey said, and the tone in his voice made the Enforcer's face turn chalk white.

"You take The Three Stooges, I'll handle the Pillsbury Doughboy." Jackpot told as the two heroes jumped into action.

Spider-man quickly webbed the criminals guns, rendering their weapons useless, and kicked Ox and Montana, making them fly into the wall and leaving Fancy Dan alone and defenseless.

"Your ass is mine now, clown." Spider-man said as he cracked his knuckles. Dan gave out a weak squeal.

Omega Red dropped the money bags he was carrying as the redheaded superhero approached him and the whips on his arms started to flail threatening.

"You again?!"

"Hi there Stay Puft. Been fighting any walking statues lately?" the young girl said.

"What? Was that a joke?" Omega Red said, not seeing the point.

"What, you haven't seen _Ghostbusters_? Then you're not from town."

"Does any one find those jokes of yours funny?" the russian mercenary said as he lashed his tentacles at the young heroine.

"Usually just my boyfriend. We have a humour of our own." Jackpot continued to banter as she dodged the albino mutants blow. "That's him over there, by the way. Wave to him.

Omega Red didn't took notice at Spider-man's direction, but if he had he might had seen that Spidey was sitting on Fancy Dan's shoulders, had grabbed him by the wrist and was forcing the criminal to punch himself in the face.

"Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!" the hero in red and blue mocked the tiny crook in a Nelson Muntz-way.

Ox and Montana, not having any weapons that wasn't covered in web, grabbed on to Spider-man and tried to get him off Dan. But Spidey easily broke free of their grip and punched Montana in the stomach while flipping over Dan like an omelette with his legs in the same time.

"You guys really know how to burn my cannoli." the young boy said as he jumped over Ox' head and kicked him in the back. "I'm just trying to enjoy a nice lunch with my girl, then you guys comes along and ruin the mood. I could have been at first base by now if it weren't for you. Thanks alot, JERKS!"

He dodged a punch from Ox and returned by punching the bigger criminal in the face, making a lot of saliva spray out of the Enforcer's mouth. Spidey peeked over the large mans shoulder and called out "How is it going over there, sweetie?" to Jackpot.

"Um, I'm a little tied up right now honey. Check again in a moment."

Tied up was a good choice of words. Omega Red had managed to wrap his tentacles around Jackpot's entire body like a long rope and was now holding her in a firm grip.

"I'm gonna squeeze every last breath out of you, you little tramp! And no stupid werewolf-tricks are gonna save you this time!"

Jackpot gave out a weak moan as she struggled to free herself.

"What's the matter?" the mutant criminal asked with a sadistic smile on his face. He lifted Jackpot up so her face was close enough for him to look into her eyes. "Are you out of jokes already? Come on, throw me a funny one."

"Okay... how about this?" Jackpot said and headbutted the supercriminal right on the nose.

The assassin lost his grip of Jackpot as he staggered back, clenching his now bleeding nose. The red-haired heroine, after having freed herself and rubbed her forehead, punched the criminal in his guts, grabbed the back of his head, and forced it down on the dumpster next to them. His head smashed into the metal with a loud clang.

"OWWW!!!"

"Was that funny enough for you? If not, maybe you'll like this one instead." Jackpot said as she delivered a roundhouse kick to Omega's head when he tried to stand up.

Jackpot moved closer to the Omega Red and punched him over his left cheek, then kicked him in his stomach and picked up a trash can that she slammed right into his face. All the blows to his head made the giant mercenary pass out and he fell to the ground like a cut down tree.

At the same time, Jackpot's boyfriend was bissy beating up the Enforcers.

"When I get my hands on you, you fu--!" Ox tried to say, only to have a glob of web cover his mouth.

"Hey, watch the language, pal. There's a lady presence." Spider-man said as he shot out two strings of web that attached to Ox' body and throwed him high up in the air. He knocked him out with a well-aimed kick to his head, pushed him against the wall and webbed him to it.

After having webbed up Montana and now Ox, Spidey turned around to see Fancy Dan trying to claw his way through the web that blocked his path. The little criminal was on the brink of crying.

Spider-man walked up to fleeing criminal and tabbed him on the shoulder.

"Hey shortstuff. You hurt my girlfriend." Spidey said as Dan slowly turned around, and then punch the Enforcer in his face, knocking him out and then webbing him down.

"I think you made him wet himself." Jackpot said as she walked up to her boyfriend, slightly amused over having beaten the crap out of these idiots.

"He deserved it. How about you, you're okay? It looked pretty ugly there for a second."

"I'm fine, it's not like it's the first time some guy been a little too grabby around me. Aint that right Tiger?"

"I plead the fifth."

Spidey jumped up on the wall and reached out his hand to help Jackpot climb over the web that surrounded them. Soon they were back on their lunch spot, with their hot dogs hanging on a thread of web several stories above the ground.

"Ewww, no there's spider-goo all over it." Jackpot complained when she got her ones back.

"Oh... Sorry, maybe it wasn't such a clever idea after all."

At the same time, a small group of police cars was arriving at the street to investigate the scene and the call-in of an robbery they had gotten. To the police mens surprise, at the place where the robbers were said to have escaped, they found two superheores picking white-grey goo off food.

"If you're looking for four punks carrying a large amount of stolen money, the'yre further in the alley." Spider-man said as he throw his ruined hot dog away. "We, we're out of here."

"Wait... would, er..." one of the higher ranking officers uttered.

"Oh what now?" Jackpot said with frustration. "We SO don't like too stay here just to get shot at."

"I-I was just wondering..."

"Yes?" the two heroes said altogether.

"...If we could buy you some donuts or something?"

* * *

"I take back everything bad I've ever said about you cops." Spider-man said after he took a bite of the jelly-filled, fried pastry. "This might even make up for that time when you shot me."

"I hope you don't think all bad stuff about us." the police captain said as he leaned back on the squad car.

"What he mean is," Jackpot said as she whiped the grunalted sugar off her lips. "We haven't really met a police officer that appreciate what we do before."

"Yeah, I can understand that. Some of our men thinks you guys are just trying to mess up our work." the captain said. He looked to the right and saw how his fellow police officers were leading the handcuffed Enforcers into the cars and how Omega Red was taken in a special transport for superpowered criminals. "But my opinion, there's stuff that's just way over the police forces head these days. If it weren't for people like you, we sure would have lost a lot of good men on the way."

Spidey nodded. "Yeah, I mean, we are not trying to be vigilantees here. We're just trying to help. We got these powers and we want to do something good with them."

"But crazies like that Punisher-guy and others keep walking around and gives us all a bad name." Jackpot contributed.

"I know the feeling. If one of my men behave badly, then all of them take the blow. Just don't judge us all because of a few bad eggs, okay?"

"Not if you do the same to us." Spidey said. "We heroes gotta stay together, right? Not just us in pretty costumes."

This was a new experience for Jackpot. Before she had been pretty sure that if she ever met a police officer while in costume, she would get arrested, or shot at. But this felt good, meeting a cool person like this captain.

There was a static sound coming from the police radio inside the car when a female voice called out from it.

"Calling all vehicles, calling all vehicles... We got a 6-16 with a possible 10-79 at Bank Salomon & Hall at 41st street. Several people are being held as hostage. I repeat, we have a 6-16 with hostages and a possible 10-79 at 41st. All vehicles are requested."

"You heard it boys!" the captain cried out. "Let's move!"

"What- what is a 6-16?" Spider-man asked.

"That would be a super-criminal, and with a possible bomb threat on top of it. Right up your alley, kids. You need a lift?"

"No thanks, we can get there ourself."

The captain nodded at the two young heroes as he got in the police car with his partners and the sirens screamed out as all the cars drove off with great haste. Spider-man helped Jackpot up on his back as they climbed up on a roof.

"MJ, this is gonna go really fast, much faster then before. So tell me if you're gonna puke."

"Oh you'll notice."

Spider-man jumped out in the air, with Jackpot clinging to his back, and webswinged away, following after the sound of the sirens towards whatever trouble ahead of them.

* * *

**AN: I think it's about time MJ goes a second match against Menace, don't you think? Until then don't forget to write those reviews, I want to hear your opinion on everything.**


	25. Chapter 25

Spider-man and the female passenger on his back was just a colorful blur, they quickly caught up with the speeding police cars and soon found the sirens far behind them. They swung over a police block-off and found that a large area around the said bank had been emptied of people. Across the street from the bank building, there was what seemed like a SWAT-team stationed up on the roof. Swinging closer, Peter recognised the team's leader, and the badges they were carrying. He let go of the web and landed right between the large number of SHIELD agents.

"Hold your fire!" Agent Carter yelled out to her fellow agents who were pretty startled by the heroes' sudden arrival. "Am I glad that you showed up, kid."

"You know me. Always eager to help." said Spidey and shrug his shoulders.

"Actually Parker, I was talking to your girlfriend."

Jackpot had jumped off Spidey's back when they landed earlier and had started to fix the mess her hair was in from the fast ride. How all those superheroines on TV managed to keep their hairdstyles intact was beyond her. She was quite surprised when she realized that the SHIELD agent was addressing to her.

"Me? Why?"

"Because we happen to have a mutated criminal that's been taking a whole floor of bank personnel hostage, and keeping his finger on the remote to what he claimes is a bomb that he placed somewhere in this town."

"Well, yeah, but..." Jackpot said, a little perplexed. "What those it got to do with me?"

The redhaired secret agent in sunglasses looked at the younger girl and then at Spider-man, who was equally puzzled, before her eyes returned to Jackpot.

"He's asking for you."

"What?" the two superheroes said at the same time.

"Oh yeah. He demands that you go in there to him, alone, or he'll start killing people. And if we try any funny business, he'll blow something up."

Jackpot was shocked. "Oh my god! But- but why? Who? I-I don't even know anyone who would do that just to get to me."

"Oh really?" Carter said like it was too obvious. "You can't think of a single one? Anyone you ran into recently? Maybe with grey scales, horns and a big axe?"

Jackpot gasped in horror when the memory of the terrifying monster came back to her.

"Now," Agent Carter said as she turned around and looked at the bank building through a pair of binoculars. "We haven't been able to see any explosives yet, _if_ there's any. But if there is-- What the hell is wrong with her?"

Jackpot was by now having some sort of panic attack, and Spidey was trying to do his best to calm her down.

"Oh god oh god oh god!! I can't do this!! Oh god!!"

"MJ, you need to calm down!"

"I-I-I-I can't go in there to that... THING! He-- he almost killed me the last time! Oh my god I'm hyperventilating!! Someone get me a paperbag!!"

Carter's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the panicing teenager.

"Pull yourself together, Barbie! Peoples life's on stake here!"

Spider-man put his hands on his girlfriend's shoulders and looked her right into her eyes, and MJ could see how serious he was despite the mask coverering his face. A strange skill she had picked up after all this time.

"Peter..." she pleaded with tearful eyes. "Please... don't make me go in there to that monster."

"MJ, I hate this just as much as you do."

"No not as much as I do!"

"MJ, you have to do this. It's the only way."

"You only need to buy us some time." Carter joined in. "If he really has a bomb somewhere, and a remote button to it, then our eggheads can track the homing signal and we might be able to disable it before it's to late."

"You hear that MJ? You only need to stall him."

"I-I-I... I don't know if I'm able to do this..." the young girl whimpered.

"MJ, listen, I know you will be able to handle it. You're the toughest woman I know."

"Except... except for your Aunt May... right?"

"Yeah, Aunt May could beat us both up, blindfolded."

"With her arms tied behind her back."

Agent Carter rolled her eyes in the back of her head, she had never understood the whole joking-thing.

"MJ, honey..." Spidey continued. "I know that you can do this. There must be something he want if he's looking for you like this, so you just have to keep him talking for as long as you can. And if he starts to fight... I know you can take him. I believe in you a hundred percent, I've seen you fight other nutjobs without problems.

"Yeah, but... those times I had you watching my back."

"I won't leave you, I'll be right here if things turn too ugly. But now we have to think about the people that's in danger. Go in there and show that freako that you're not afraid of him. Just keep your head in the game, don't let your guard down. And remember that thing I told you about evasive manouvers."

The young heroine wiped a tear from her eyes, took a deep breath and braced herself. She know there was no way out of this. She nodded to her boyfriend and then to Agent Carter. Then she adjusted her mask and walked towards the edge of the building they where standing on.

"MJ, wait."

The young hero stopped walking when she heard her boyfriends voice behind her. She turned her head and saw Spidey pulling up his mask as he walked up to her and gave her a good luck kiss on the cheek.

"Now go get'im Tigress."

It made MJ a feeling a little bolder hearing Peter using her pet name for him back at her, she gave him a smile before she turned back around and jumped off the rooftop. Although Peter had managed to raise her spirit, she could not help but to have a frightening thought in her head;

_"My butt is gonna get soooo kicked."_

_

* * *

_

The bank was a thirty story building, and the twentieth floor had a huge hole in it, marking the monsters way of entrance. Jackpot could easily jump from the building to the bank's left and climb on up to it. Inside, it looked like any other office with cubicles, potted plants and water coolers. However there was no people to be seen. She could hear breathing from behind a wall, so she quickly walked behind to check it out. There she found at least twenty people sitting on the floor in one big group, all of them scared for what would happen to them. But as they noticed the superhero appear before them, most of there faces was lit up by a small streak of hope.

"E-e-everybody just keep calm." Jackpot told them. "Everything is gonna be--"

She stopped talking as she heard a evil chuckle behind her back, and then some heavy steps. She slowly turned around, and walking into the room was the very thing that caused this situation. The giant monster looked just like MJ had remembered it, with it's grey scaly skin, enormous swelling muscles and it's face with horns, grinning teeth and those horrible yellow eyes. Strapped to it's belt it had it's giant axe, several grenades and other strange devices.

"Alas, we meet again." the monster said in it's dark, raspy voice.

"My name is not Al Ass. What's wrong with you?" _"That's right MJ. Crack a joke and he might not notice you're ready to soil yourself any minute now."_

"HA! That was funny. Tell me, does the joking come with being a hero or is it optional, eh?"

"Uh... well, I..." MJ was befuddled, she had thought that the thing would have started to pound on her by now. "I-I-I'm sorry, but I don't think you ever told me your name..."

"Oh, sorry, where are my manners. I was actually never going to pick a silly alter ego name, but then the media went and did it for me. And to tell the truth, I like it! I... am Menace!"

"I don't think they meant... You know what, let's say that. You're Menace." Jackpot said. If the creature too had misunderstood that headline, fine by her. "Listen, I'm here, just like you wanted. Let these people go, this doesn't have to turn ugly."

"I agree, there's no need to spill any blood today. But that is all up to you, my friend."

"What do you mean? What do you want with me?"

The creature called Menace chuckled again. "Tell me, how did you acquire your powers?"

"I... I was born with them. I'm a mutant." the young heroine lied.

"I know that you're lying, girl, I know the source of your power. You and I, we are not so different."

"I'm nothing like you." Jackpot protested.

"Oh but we are. You see, our powers come from the very same source, the same wonder runs through both our veins. A man-made miracle that unleash the powers of a god into our mortal bodies! Only that yours was unjustly given to you, while I took control of my destiny and seized it myself!"

At first Jackpot didn't had a single clue of what Menace was talking about. But then a tiny suspicion started to grow in the back of her brain.

"You- you're talking about OZ!"

"So you do know about it. Was it Gonzales who told you about it? Or was it doctor Octavius?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! I don't know of any Gonzales or Octavius."

That last thing was of course a lie, but MJ felt no urge to be totally truthfull to a monsterous villain. And it was true that she never heard of a guy called Gonzales. The monster started to finger on his axe.

"Then it's like I thought. Gonzales just made the serum after Octavius' directions and poured it into the water system, that most be how you became like this. But my calculations told that normal people wouldn't be affected by it. So... I think there's more to it then what you're saying, girl."

Jackpot swallowed a lump that appeared in her throat, she had a bad feeling about the tone in Menace's voice.

"I'm sorry to say this, but I'll have to kill you. I can't allow you to run around and compromise my work. But don't worry, I'll have you know that your death will benefit all of mankind."

"Um... thanks, nice to know..."

In an explosion of strenght, Menace jumped at Jackpot, ready to lash out on her with all his power. In the fraction of a second that she had to react, Jackpot jumped against Menace like a slingshot. Thanks to her speed, Jackpot hit Menace before he hit her and she managed to take the creature with her through a wall, making several of the bank people scream in surprise and fear.

Menace stumbled up on his legs from where he had landed on the other side. Jackpot too got up on her legs, her hope growing a little bigger since she managed to throw first hit.

"Not bad, kid." the scaly monster said. "However, maybe I should try something less bloody." And by that, Menace reached for his belt and pulled up what seemed like a highly advanced, mechanic staple gun and aimed it at the young hero.

"Whoa, is that a gun or are you just happy too see-- No, it's a gun." Jackpot nervously joked.

There was a tiny 'p-thaw' sound as a tiny dart shot out of the weapon. Jackpot tried to dodge the projectile but she was taken by surprise and didn't react fast enough, so it hit her in the arm.

"Ouch!"

She quickly grabbed the dart and pulled it out of her skin. As she held it in her hand she noticed it was a tranquilizer dart, and it had been emptied into her body. Immediatly she started to feel a little light-headed. She shaked her head to get rid of the feeling.

"Wha-what was that?"

"That was was a tranquilizer strong enough to take down a really large horse. But it seems like I need to use a little more on you, kiddo." Menace said and fired more darts at Jackpot.

Jackpot jumped to the right and succeeded to dodge the volley of needles. She then turned against the villain and saw a dart coming right at her. Fast as lightning, she raised her arm and catched the tiny projectile in her hand half a foot in front of her.

"Your reaction time is impressive." Menace pointed out as he continued to fire.

Jackpot jumped into the air, although not very high because of the ceiling, and spinned around, avoiding the tranquilizers. She landed right in front of Menace and smashed the gun out of his clawed hand. The weapon broke into a thousand pieces as it hit the floor.

Menace roared out in anger after losing his weapon and hit Jackpot with the back of his hand which made her fly through the room and right into a cubical.

The giant villain stepped closer to the apparent struck down heroine. Jackpot, lying on the ground, reached for the closest heavy thing she could see, which was a computer tower case. When Menace stepped over the knocked down cubical wall and closed in on the young girl, he got a hard drive right into his face. The surprise and pain caused him to stagger back several steps. Then he got the monitor in his face.

"Aaaarrrghhh...! Why do you always throw stuff!?!"

"Because my boyfriend's too cheap to buy me my own web, that's why." Jackpot joked and then delievered a punch to the behemoths stomach, and then another one to his jaw.

Angered, and ignoring the jokes, Menace grabbed hold of Jackpot and ran right forwards. He pushed her right through all the cubicals, trampling down everything in it's way like a stampeding bull. After destroying the office, they reached the wall, opposite the one they both had entered the building through, and Menace pushed Jackpot up against glass wall with his arm over her chest.

"You! You have been given this gift and you're wasting it!" Menace said in a mad voice.

Jackpot struggled to get free but the creature was much stronger then her. However, she could hear tiny sounds of glass cracking right next to her ear.

"You don't deserve this like I do! You don't deserve this power! You were given the power of a god and you're wasting it away at these petty games!"

Jackpot kicked Menace in the chest, but the monster just groaned behind it's teeths and pushed her harder against the glass. More cracking could be heard behind her back.

"I... I..." Jackpot tried to utter.

"What?!"

"I hope you're just as good at flying as you are at talking nuts!"

And by that, there was a loud crash sound as the glass wall shattered and both the hero and the villain tripped out of it and plummet towards the ground.

* * *

"Target's left the bulding!" Agent Carter shouted out. Both she, her men and Spider-man had watched the whole fight through their binoculors. "The target's left the building! Alpha team move in! Secure the hostage! GO GO GO!!!"

Jetpacks ignited and weapons was powered up as the SWAT-team jumped into action. Spider-man, meanwhile, stood completely still, fearing nothing but the worst.


	26. Chapter 26

Mary Jane recalled one time when Peter had defined the term 'defenestration' to her.

"Defenestration," he had told her, "is when someone throw someone else, or something, out a window. Either an open window or a closed one."

MJ could not figure out if she was the defenestrater, or the defenestratee. But she did know that she hated that word. Especially now as she and her monstrous opponent moved closer and closer to the street in a very high speed.

Jackpot had little time to react. Falling close next to Menace, she reached out her arm, grabbed on to the heavier villain and pulled herself closer to him. She punched Menace in the face to disorient him even more, then she swung around him and with the momentum made Menace turn around to fall with his back first and his face up. She put both her feets on his chest and as they where just about to hit the street, Jackpot kicked out with all her strenght, making Menace descend towards the ground even faster while she herself moved upwards in the air.

The shockwave from Menace's crash caused all the vehicles on the street to jump in the air, all the fire hydrants exploded and a big crater was created in the sidewalk as his body was forced down into the ground.

Jackpot had a slightly easier landing. As she started to fall down again she aimed for Menace's half-burried body, she landed on her feets on his chest, bounced off him and tumbled down on the street.

"Phewie..." said Jackpot as she got up on her feet again, relatively unharmed. Also, all the adrenaline had made the dizziness from the tranquilizer dart disappear. "I can't believe that really worked."

"Gnnnnrrrrrrrraaaaaghhh...!!!"

Jackpot turned around to see Menace pull himself up from the hole in the ground. He had pieces of concrete and asphalt sticking out of his back, and he also had a furious and crazy look on his face.

"NOW YOU DIE!!!"

Jackpot had no time to defend herself. The monster ran up and punched her so hard that she was sent flying several hundred feets away, flying closer towards the outer part of the roped-off area. She landed with her back first right into a post box which split open like an U, making it look like she was sitting on some weird throne. Letters and postcards flied out in the air and landed on the ground like giant snowflakes.

"Owwww..." Jackpot moaned.

Three police officers who were close by ran up to check on the scene, and they were in slight shock after seeing the heroine come flying and slam into the box. Right after them came a huge bunch of journalist and reporters who'd tried to get pass the blockade.

"Holy shit!"

"Are- are you alive?"

"This hurts even more then it looks..." Jackpot whined, still sitting down.

"Get up from there there and pull your hands where we can see them!" one of the police men shouted as all of them aimed their weapons at Jackpot. The tv-reporters, meanwhile, rolled their cameras for all that is worth.

"You can't be serious..."

"I'm not going to ask you again mutant!!"

"I can't go to jail! It's too dark and no TV!"

Then, to Jackpot's great relief, the police men's superior officer pushed himself through the crowd of reporters. Luckily, it was the same officer that had bought her and Peter donuts earlier.

"What the hell are you doing?! Holster your weapons!"

"But Captain Quaid...?"

"I don't wanna hear any excuses, holster your weapons! She's not the bad guy here!" the police captain yelled.

"Speaking of which..." Jackpot said as she started to see more then just stars. "Anybody seen a miniature Hulk with bad hair running around here somewhere?"

Almost as a respond to her question, the ground trembled when Menace landed about twenty feet from them. One of the tv-reporters gave out a high-pitch scream.

"Uh-oh..." said the heroine.

"Uh-oh indeed." said the monster.

* * *

Agent Woo was holding a small tracking device in his left hand, and he was sure that he was on to something. The signal was coming from a small gas station lying in the shadow of an overpass. And at this hour, the bridge was heavily crowded with trafic. If some crazy person would place a bomb where it could hurt a lot of people, this would be a good place.

Woo pulled out his gun in his right hand and stormed in through the entrance to the gas station, followed by five other agents.

"Special agent Woo, SHIELD-department! You have to exit this building! NOW!! There could be a bomb in here!! Move people!!" he shouted to the people inside, and they weren't late to oblige.

The SHIELD-agents spread out to search the building for anything that could be classified as an explosive.

"Agent Woo! In here!" one of the agents called out from the ladies' room.

Woo quickly ran into the toilet where one of his agents pointed into one bathroom stall. And sitting on the toilet seat was a small mechanical device connected by tubes to two glass containers, holding about half a gallon of strange liquid each. Woo quickly holstered his gun and instead pulled up his walkie-talkie.

"Call in the bomb-squad." he said into it. "We found it."

* * *

"Freeze!!!"

"Do-don't move or we'll shoot!!!"

Menace ignored the warnings from the police and stepped closer towards them and the superhero. The police men fired their weapons but it had no effect on the monster, the bullets just grazed against it's leathery hide. Menace lifted up his axe and snarled as he moved closer.

"Nononono! Get out of the way!" Jackpot cried out and got up from the post box with all her speed. He ran towards Menace and pushed the police officers to the side, forcing them out of harms way.

Menace swinged his axe through the air and missed Jackpot by mere inches. All the reporters an police officers ran for cover as the two superpowered individuals engaged eachother in a horrid and bloody fight.

Jackpot blocked one of Menace's superstrong punches and ducked from his axe. She planted an upper-cut on the creature's jaw, which made him stagger back a few steps. Menace unhooked a grenade from his belt and threw it against Jackpot, but she jumped to the right and was far out of the blast range when it exploded. Another scream from the reporters could be heard from behind a car when the grenade blew up. Jackpot quickly jumped back towards Menace and punched him right in the eye.

"Stand still you little shit!!!" Menace roared out when he tried to hit Jackpot but missed.

"Yeah right. Like that'll happen. You know... The thing about you big, strong and ugly monsters is... Well, you're big, strong and ugly." _"Great, now I sound just like Peter."_

Jackpot landed a left hook in Menace's face, but by doing so she got a too close and lost sight of Menace's hands. His right fist connected with Jackpot's face with inhuman strenght. The pain from the punch made Jackpot not feel the other pain as she flied back, hit the ground and tumbled back along the street like she had been thrown out of a speeding car.

She slowly got up on her knees, disoriented and her entire body aching. She could feel blood gathering up in her mouth. She spit it out on the ground, put her hand over now swollen cheek and tried to rub the pain away. Then she noticed something lying in the small puddle of blood beneath her.

In that red pool of her own blood there was a small white object, like a tiny piece of marble. She picked it up in her hand and gasped in horror when she saw what it was.

It was a tooth. HER tooth.

She stuck her finger in her mouth and noticed that in the back of her mouth, where there usually was a molar, there was now an empty gap between two other teeths.

"Holy... My tooth! He-- he knocked out my tooth!"

The monstrous villain laughed at the redhaired heroine from the other end of the street.

"Hahaha. Could we say that I... _hit the jackpot_?"

"Oh no you did NOT pull that crack on ME!!"

Jackpot eyes narrowed in a furious look. She clenched her fist around the tooth and stepped back up on her legs. She then turned around and charged against Menace with incredible speed. Menace let his axe fall, but the young hero dived around it, let her free hand down on the ground and pushed herself up with all her strenght, forcing both her heels right up on the monster's mouth.

The pain caused Menace to loose his orientation and drop his axe, which gave Jackpot the opportunity to lash out on him. She landed punch after punch on the grey monster. Not being able to think straight because of the punishment he was receiving, Menace reached out trying to grab a hold of something. He managed to grab a hold of Jackpot's long hair, and when he did, he pulled her close and punched her in her side. Jackpot cried out in pain and fell down on one knee.

"I'm gonna kill you, you little tramp! I'm gonna kill you!" Menace growled as he towered over the girl, still pulling her by the hair.

The young superhero looked up at Menace, despite the pain in her body and scalp, and there was something in her eyes. A spark of mad fury. Still with her hair in the criminals grip, she clenched her teeth together, flew up on both her feets and delievered a punch to his face with all her superpowered, anger-reinforced strenght. Menace lost grip of her and was sent flying right through the window of a butcher shop. He crashed right into a counter of pastrami and bologna sausages.

"Can't you get it into that thick skull of yours?!" Jackpot yelled out in anger. "Nobody! Messes! With! THE DO!!! You psycho sunnova--! Knocking out my tooth!!! MY TOOTH!!! Oh I'm gonna smack you so hard, you--!!"

Menace crawled out from the broken window, his left eye and left side of his face had swollen up and orange blood was coming out of his mouth.

"I... I have to admit... You fight much better then before." he panted and even more blood spilled out as he did.

"And you're much uglier then before!"

"But this has gone far enough!" And by that, Menace pulled up a small item from his belt. It looked like some kind of remote with only button protected under a plastic cover. The device seemed really tiny compered to Menace's giant hand. Menace carefully removed the cover with one clawed finger. "There was no need for it to come to this, but you leave me no other choice!"

"What are you rambling about?" Jackpot asked.

"Their lifes will be on your conscience now, _hero_!"

A chill moved down the young girl's spine when she realized what Menace meant.

"Oh god... No! Don't do it!"

"Watch me--"

THWIP

The small remote suddenly disappeared from Menace's hand, to his surprise.

"Okay that's about enough, kids." said Spider-man as he catched the tiny device in his hand from pulling it out of Menace grip with his webbing.

Relief washed over Jackpot when she saw her boyfriend appear, seemingly out of nowhere, and snatching the remote detonator from Menace's hand. Spidey then put the plastic cover back over the button and webbed the remote up too a lamppost.

"Now!" the young hero in red and blue cried out in anger. "Step the hell away from my girlfriend!"

"Girlfriend? You're dating _him_?" Menace said to Jackpot. "I should had guessed, I can smell his scent all over you."

"Really? Well... can you really blame me? I mean, just look at her."

"Not the right time, sweetie."

"Sorry. Anyway... You can just as well give up now Menace."

But Menace just chuckled. "Oh really? You think that you got me just because you taken away my toys? Well, here's a lesson to you kids, smart people always have a backup."

He then pulled up another detonator, one looking exactly like the first one, and removed the cover over the button.

"NO!"

Spider-man shot out two weblines to snatch it away from Meance, but this time he wasn't fast enough. Menace blocked the web with his other arm and pressed the button with his thumb.

Click

There was a few, but long, silent seconds as the three of them waited for the explosion. But to the heroes great relief, not even the slightest boom could be heard.

"No...! NO!" Menace cried as he retried to push the button several times.

"Looks like SHIELD found that bomb just in time." Jackpot pointed out with growing confidence.

"Oh yeah." Spidey agreed. "And _what_ time is it?"

"It's clobbering time."

Menace had barely any time to react before the two heroes launched against him and started to kick his ass.

"You were right, Jackpot. He IS even uglier up close." Spider-man cracked between the blows.

"Then you should had seen him five minutes ago. It's not a good thing when you're prettier AFTER your face been whipped."

"Ahhhh!! Get away from me!!" Menace screamed out as punches and kicks was delievered upon his body. He flailed with his arms, desperatly trying to protect himself from the two heroes.

In a shot of luck, Menace managed to hit Jackpot and send her flying back across the street. He then quickly took several steppes back and picked up his axe that was lying on the ground.

"Oh no you don't!" Spider-man said, jumped up in the air and kicked the monster in his chin.

Menace first staggered a step back from the blow, then he tried to cleave the young boy with his axe, but missed. However, as Spider-man dodged the large blade, Menace got a hold of his left arm and pulled him close enough for him to hit the kid with the helve of his axe. He then, in frustrated anger, tossed the hero away with all his strenght.

Spider-man was sent flying over the rooftops and disappeared over the skyline, his scream could be heard fading away in the distance.

"YEEEOOOOOoooowwww..."

* * *

Spidey crashed through a window hundreds of yards outside the roped-off area. It took him a while before his head stopped from spinning, but when it did, he noticed he was on the floor of some kind of nursery. The walls was covered in unicorns and toys and stuffed animals of all sizes lied all over the floor. And a few feets away from him, there was a bed, where two eyes peeked up from behind the edge.

A little girl raised her head from behind the bed and said to Spider-man;

"Scuse me, are you the toothfairy?"

* * *

Jackpot got up on her legs just in time to see Menace throw Spidey away like a super ball. Seeing the monster treat her boyfriend like that caused a great amount of anger to stir up inside her, and when Menace turned around, Jackpot ran up and slammed a powerful kick to his bare, Hulk-like chest.

Menace tumbled backwards and landed on his back, still holding on to his axe. Jackpot jumped into the air and landed on top of his chest. She then grabbed a hold of one of his horns with one hand and started to wail punch after punch on his face with the other.

"This is for hurting my boyfriend!" KAPOW "This is for threatening innocent people!" CRACK "This is for knocking out my tooth!" SMACK "This is for ruining my hair!" BANG "And THIS is because you're so darn UGLY!" BOOM

"Aaaghh! Girrrrl! When I get up from here I'm gonna--!"

"What? I can't hear you with my fist in your face!"

BANG

Jackpot slammed the last punch right between Menaces horns, giving him a real nasty headache. She then jumped off his chest, did a backward somersault and landed gracefully on her feets. Meanwhile, Menace slowly staggered up on his feet, holding his axe in his right hand and his aching head in his left. Jackpot charged against him, and punched him with all the strenght that she had left. Menace flied, again, through a window, this time into a bookstore, and crashed into a shelf stacked with heavy literature. And this time, he didn't get up.

Jackpot took a long breather before she noticed that Menace had been knocked unconscious.

"I won? YEAH!!! I won!! I won, and you? A LOSER!! Loser. Loooooooser! Leh-hoo zeh-her."

She put her hand on her forehead and did the hand gesture for loser at her defeated opponent while yelling out all the variation of the word she could think of. And at that moment, Spider-man had managed to get himself back to the scene, just in time to see his girlfriend gloat over her victory.

"Oh my god! Sweetie, that was incredible." he said as he landed right behind Jackpot, on the street that by now looked more like a war zone.

At the moment MJ heard Peters voice behind her, she quickly turned around and grabbed him by the shirt of his suit and forced his lips against hers and, despite the fabrics of his mask being in the way, gave him a long passionate kiss.

* * *

**AN: Maybe I should point out one little detail. We all know what gender Menace really is, but our heroes don't, so I'm writing it from their perspective.**


	27. Chapter 27

The two kids lips broke apart when MJ felt the taste of spandex against her tongue.

"Whoa..." Spidey managed to say. "Wow... what was that?"

"Sorry, I just needed to dispose all the extra energy somehow. Come here and I'll give you one properly."

She then carefully lifted up the fabric on Peters mask so that his mouth was uncovered, and they lips met again in a long and tenderly victory kiss. Neither of them knew for how long it lasted, but neither of them really wanted it to end.

However, they did seperated when they could hear the sound of cameras and people running towards them. When they look around them they saw an army of reporters and journalist had starting to surround the two of them.

"Miss Jackpot! Miss Jackpot! Over here please!"

"Any comments, Spider-man? Any comment at all?"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Easy!" Spider-man said as he tried to calm the crowd down. His mask was still up and he had not noticed that he had MJ's lipstick smeared over his face.

"Jackpot! How those it feel to have won today?" one reporter asked as she reached out her microphone towards the two young heroes.

"Wha...? Um, great... I think." Jackpot answered, a little confused.

"Are you a mutant?" another reporter asked.

"Um, no... but I have several good friends that are..."

"Miss Jackpot. Ned Leeds, Daily Bugle. Is it true that you and Spider-man have a romantic relationship?"

"Whoa, hey! I don't think that's any of yours business." Jackpot said, believing that all the relationship-talk out in the open would embarrass her boyfriend. But then Spider-man did something that came to her surprise.

"It's true. We're a couple, and we're happily in love too." he said as he laid his arm around Jackpots waist, and the scratching of pencils was heard around the two.

Jackpot failed to hide the feeling of blissful surprise that spread through her body. The fact that Peter had admitted their relationship, in front of all these media people, meant a lot to her. Her face broke into a smile and she looked at Spidey with with big, beaming eyes.

"Did you two met each other while Spider-man was dating Kitty Pride of the X-men or did it happen afterwards?"

"Hey!!" Jackpot suddenly jerked up. "Aren't we forgetting something here? Like the big monster I just beat up?"

The next second the sound of people on jetpacks could be heard above the heads of the crowd, and agent Carters yelling too.

"I want a collar on Menace ASAP! And I want these people out of here yesterday!"

Spider-man took a firmer grip of Jackpot and webswinged away from the scene before they got dragged into something else.

* * *

Pete got them both up on a rooftop far away and safe enough.

"Man..." Peter said as he put Mary Jane down. "You okay, MJ?"

"Hold that thought. -Bluuuuaaggh-!!"

Peter quickly took a step back as MJ bent over and everything she had in her stomach, plus a little blood from inside her mouth, spilled out in front of their feets.

"Whoa...! You okay?" Peter asked again when he dared to stepped back side by side to MJ.

"Kinda... sorta. It's just... it's just the tension, you know. Oh man..."

Peter put his hand on MJ's shoulder to comfort her as she held her head between her knees and tried to spit out the sour taste in her mouth.

"It's okay Mary Jane. You're only human."

"Heh, yeah but, 'only human' is a relative term for people like us."

"You should be glad that you made a mask that doesn't cover your mouth. Throwing up in your mask... well... Been there, done that, don't wanna go back."

"I see what you mean. Jeez... Look, he punched out one of my teeth."

She held up the tooth that she was still holding in her hand.

"Oh my god! Are- are you okay?" Peter asked in shock.

"Not more then when you asked me the same question five seconds ago."

"Well, excuse me for worrying."

"I know, I'm sorry. You are sweet for caring so much. I would kiss you if I didn't had puke breath."

Peter rubbed his neck and looked again at the tooth in his girlfriends hand.

"MJ, we gotta get you somewhere where you can get that fixed. I know of a good dentist, but... I don't think it will be for free."

"Just my luck, and I who hate going to the dentist. You know... they didn't mention any of this in the brochures."

"What brochures?"

"You mean you didn't get any brochures?"

The two teenagers were then interrupted by Agent Carter who came flying towards the two. She landed next to them and gave them a compliment on their work.

"Nice done, kids. Although, the interview was a strange move."

"Those people just came out of nowhere." Spider-man told with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Where were you guys three minutes ago?" Jackpot asked.

"What, you're complaining?"

"Yeah, this is me complaining."

"Did you get Menace?" Spidey asked the SHIELD-agent.

Carter lifted up her left arm and spoke into the wrist-worn communicator.

"Carter here. Tell me we got a leash on the target."

"Er... That's a negative, Ma'am." came from the watch-like speaker.

"What!?" said both Carter, Peter and Mary Jane in one voice.

"Yeah, uh... He seem to have woken up and left the scene before we could seize him."

"Then track his genetic signal with the satellite, you moron!"

"Yeah, that's another thing. We kinda lost it. Just now."

Agent Carter started to get red all over her face and she screamed into the communicator.

"What do you mean 'lost it'!?!"

"I-I-I mean..." the guy in the other end of the line stuttered. "We-we had it for a second and then it disappeared. He most be able to power down or something."

If it is possible to hang up on someone on a wrist-worn communicator, then that's just what Agent Carter did.

"You gotta be fricking kidding me?!" Spider-man cried. Jackpot on the other hand was so mad that she couldn't finish a sentence.

"You-- Have could you-- Are you completely-- He almost-- And you-- Aaaargh!!!"

The special agent just stood there and took the kids scolding with a stern face.

"You guys can't even do your job when someone else done it for you! How imcompetent are you guys really?!"

"That's it! I don't want anything more to do with you people!" MJ yelled at Carter. "Just stay away from us!"

"You guys totally SUCK! Come on MJ, we're out of here."

"And you clean that up!"

The two kids left the roof by webswinging, and Agent Carter was left alone and angry.

"Clean up wha- Oh man! I stepped in it..."

* * *

"Aaaargh! I can't believe those guys!" MJ cussed while she pulled her civilian shirt over her torso. Peter, having done this a thousend times already, was already dressed.

"I know. These guys get like a trazillion dollars in budget and they still can't do anything right."

"I had to do all the job for them. Can you believe it?" MJ said as she stuffed her suit into her backpack.

"Hey, you can do their job a hundred times better then them."

"Really? You think I did good?"

Peter smiled at his girlfriend.

"Are you kidding? MJ, you were great! You were like Wonder Woman. Like Xena."

"Only without that annoying battlecry. But not like Buffy, right?"

"Oh no. Buffy's a total bitch."

They laughed for a moment and both started to feel a little better, then MJ held her sides and and gave out weak "Ow...!"

"MJ, are you okay?" a worried Peter asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'm just a little sore, and awfully tired. How's my face?"

Peter lifted up MJ's chin and had a look.

"I don't like that swollen bruise on your cheek. But hopefully it will go away, sooner or later."

"Hopefully I can hide it from my mom till I take out the make-up."

"I think she'd be more worried about that gap between your teeth. We should get you to that dentist right away."

"Can't we just say that I joined a hockey team or something?"

Peter gave her a look that basically means 'Don't be stupid.'

"Okay okay, let us just get it over with." she finally yielded. She just hated the thought about going to a dentist, and now she had to come up with a good lie why she had to also.

Peter put her arm around MJ and helped her out from the alley they were in, and lead her out on the open street. As they walked down the pavement, Mary Jane could hear Peter gave out a small giggle.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Well, Menace you know..."

"Yeah?"

"He really... _hit the jackpot_ back there."

She slapped him in the back of his head.

"Ow!"

* * *

Lillian Hollister pulled out a trenchcoat she had hidden away just in case. She pulled the coat over her body and quickly button up.

"To close... that was to close..." she mumbled to herself. "Almost... got caught. Gotta stay low... Can't risk anything. To much at stake."

She adjusted her blond hair, walked out into the open street and disappeared in the anonymous crowd.


	28. Chapter 28

MJ stepped through the gate to her yard while rubbing her cheek. The feeling in it was just starting to come back, since the dentist had put it under anaesthetic. Her tooth were now where it was supposed to be, along with a lot of cotton. She had come up with an amazing song-and-dance number about how she had falled of a pommel horse and landed on her face, the dentist had luckily bought it and she was glad that the dental surgery was over, but she wasn't glad over how much money it had cost her. Peter had been with her and supported the whole time and had just dropped her off before he had headed home to his aunt's house.

She was just about to grab the door knob when the door opened by itself and MJ's mother came out with the trash bag in her hand.

"MJ? There you are, I was starting to get worried about y--" Mrs Watson said, then she noticed her daughters swollen cheek. MJ had hoped that she would be able to hide it from her, but that hope seemed pretty doomed by now. "Oh my god! What has happen to you?!"

"It's... it's nothing, really. I... I fell over this thing and knocked a tooth loose. I-I just came from the dentist. It's really nothing." MJ said, trying her best to sound believeble. But judging by her mothers look, she was failing.

"Mary Jane Watson, I can tell when you're lying. And you are lying right now. What really happen'd? Did someone do this to you?" the middleage woman said with the stern voice of any mother who has just caught their child with a lie.

"I'm- I'm not lying..." MJ said in a weak and guilty voice.

"Did someone do this to you? Did Peter do this?"

"No, he... WHAT?!" MJ could not believe what she just heard. "Oh my god!! You really think Peter did this to me?! Are you out of your mind!?!"

Anger rose up inside the young redhead and she started to yell at her mother.

"How can you even think something like that!?! Peter would never hit me!! I can't believe this!!!"

MJ's mother were taken aback by her daughters reaction, and the screaming was starting to draw attention from the nearest neighbours.

"For your information, Peter helped me out with this all the time!! He has been a sweet guy all this time and you're acting like he's some kind of punk!!"

"Mary Jane, I'm your mother! I just don't want you to find out you've made a mistake when it's to late!"

"You mean like you did?! Peter is nothing like my father! Wish I could say the same thing about you though!"

And by that, MJ stormed in through the door, ran up to her room and slammed the door shut. She dug her face into her pillow and started sobbing.

* * *

Peter never had any problems when he went to sleep, usually because he was always exhausted, and tonight he had fallen asleep as soon as he got out of his clothes and lied down. However, tonight, a little sound came to wake him up in the middle of the night.

Tap

After the first 'tap', Peter's eyes just opened to a narrow slit. Then they closed again.

Tap

He opened his eyes fully, but his brain seemed to have been left behind.

Tap

Now Peter woke up for real and wondered, a bit drowsy, what that sound was coming from.

Tap Tap

Peter realized that the sound was coming from the window, so he got up and peeked out. To his surprise, Mary Jane was standing on his lawn and was throwing tiny rocks at his window. The drowsiness immediatly went away when he saw how sad and downhearted she looked. When she noticed that she had got his attention, she raised her index finger to show that she wondered if she could bother him for a minute. Peter nodded at her and pointed at the backdoor before he disappeared out of sight.

Peter didn't even bother to check what time it was, he just sneaked past Aunt May's bedroom door and headed downstairs. He unlocked the backdoor and stepped out, trying not to make it creak too loud. Outside it was still dark, and MJ stood there alone with her arms crossed. She was basically just wearing her pyjamas and a pair of fluffy slippers. By now, the swelling in her face had passed hours ago.

"MJ... What are you doing here this late? Is- is everything allright?" Peter asked, obviusly worried.

"No. No, it's not." MJ answered while looking at down at her feet.

Peter stepped closer to MJ and wrapped his arms around her in a consoling hug. She gave out a small sniffle when they laid their arms around each other.

"What's wrong, MJ? You know you can tell me. Are you having nightmares again?" Peter asked again when they broke apart.

"No, it's not nightmares..." MJ said with a sigh. "How did you do it, Peter?"

"Do what? What are you talking about?"

Mary Jane gave out another sad sigh before she explained. "I had a fight with my mom today. She... she noticed that my face was all messed up." she said and gesticulated at her healed up cheek. "I tried to say that it was an accident, but she could tell I was lying right away."

"Yeah... Parents do that, somehow."

"The thing is... for some reason she think that you did it to me."

"What? Seriously?"

"Yeah... That's when the fight kinda started. I... I don't know what to do. She knew that I'm lying, and if I don't tell her the truth she might... I don't know, she might even forbid me to see you. I don't know if I can keep on going with this, lying to her and all."

Peter rubbed his neck. "I see. Well, I'm sorry MJ, but I don't really know what you should do. But I know what you're going through, I had the same problems once. When I had to lie to Aunt May... it almost tore us apart."

"Yeah..."

"All I know is that you have to tell your mom the truth before it gets too out of hands. Trust me, an army of you-killing robots on your frontyard is not the way to go."

MJ nodded, she couldn't disagree with that.

"And I..." Peter continued. "I don't wanna take sides here, but I don't think you should blame your mother too hard. She's just worried about you, and after been married to a jerk like your father for so many years... Well, then you're bound to get a little edgy about these sort of things. MJ, you are everything your mother got left, and you will only have one mom ever. Don't take that for granted."

"Is that what happen'd with your uncle? Did you-- I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay, I know what you mean. And yes, that is exactly what happen'd between me and my uncle. I don't want you to do the same misstake as I did."

MJ gave out a new sigh. When Peter was right, he was right.

"I just can't believe that my mom accuses you for something like that. She knows you for gods sake."

Peter just shrugged. "I guess it's something we have to take for now until she finds out the truth. But it's your call. When you're ready, you're ready."

"I know. It's just... god..."

"Yeah, I know. It totally sucks."

The two teenagers embraced each other in another hug, a much longer one this time. When they let go of each other, Peter noticed that MJ was still looking rather discouraged.

"Hey. You need a cheer up, Red. How about you come over tomorrow after work and we rent a movie and order a pizza or something?"

"I think that sounds like a rather good idea."

"Great. Now go home and get some sleep. We can't have you running around fighting crime with bags under your eyes."

"Can't... can't I stay with you tonight? Like that other night?" MJ asked.

"I would like that very much, MJ, but I think we better lay low for a while. If your mom really is on the warpath. And if Aunt May finds us like that... Well, then heads will roll." Peter answered her, half-jokingly.

"I guess so..."

So the young couple said goodnight to eachother and parted. Feeling a little better, MJ sneaked back into her room and went to bed, her head full of thoughts about things that she now had to consider a part of her already strange life.

* * *

"Okay. Movie... Check. Pizza... Check. Clean shirt... *sniff* Check mate. Now if this stupid sunburn would just stop itching!"

A part from the fact that his skin was peeling off, Peter was feeling rather exhilarated. MJ had sent him a text message earlier and told him she was gonna run a little late, but these days it would take much more to ruin his good mood (when he finally got one). He was spending the last half an hour to clean up the mess in the attic, that had become somewhat of his office, and had rolled out an old TV that they were going to use. He was just about to hook up the DVD-player when the door bell rang.

"I'll take it, Aunt May!" Peter yelled to his aunt when he ran down the stairs and opened the front door.

Outside the door stood Mary Jane, looking all gorgeous in a nice black-and-white striped sweater and with her hair tied up in two ponytail bunches. In her hands she carried some kind of tupperwere cask.

"Hey Tiger." she said with a smile on her face.

"Hey MJ. Come on in." Peter told her, then his eyes went to the plastic cask in her hands. "You know, you really didn't need to bring something with you."

"I know, but since you're being so sweet and paying for everything today, I thought the least I could do is to make you something myself."

"Oooh, what is it?"

"Now now. Have patience my love and all shall be revealed in time" MJ cooed.

Then May Parker's voice was heard from the kitchen.

"Who is it, Peter?"

"It's just MJ, Aunt May."

The grey-haired woman came out into the hall dressed in a apron and robber gloves that were wet from dish water.

"Hi Mary Jane. How nice to see you." the Parker matriarch greeted the young girl with a warm smile.

"Hello Aunt May." MJ greeted her back.

"You... you look a little different, MJ. It's like you're have a glow over you or something."

"Really?" the young girl said a little taken aback. "Um, I'm- I'm taking some kind vitamines. Maybe it's them."

"Well, whatever it is, it seems to be working for you. You look healthy."

"Thank you."

Peter then joined in to break the conversation between the two women in his life.

"Er, yeah, we're gonna go upstairs and watch the film now, Aunt May." he said.

"Okay. You kids have fun, don't mind me."

MJ followed Peter up to the attic where she sat down in the old couch and had a look at the pizza.

"Mmmm. Smells delicious."

"Yeah. Hold on a second and I'll have the movie rolling in no time." Peter told MJ as he connected the DVD-player to the relatively small screened TV. Meanwhile MJ picked up the DVD case and inspected it.

"Watchmen?" she said.

"Yeah. I figured, we haven't seen it since it was out in the cinemas, so why not." Peter said when he put the disc inside the machine.

"Well yeah but I thought we were gonna see something we haven't already seen."

"You... you don't like it?" Peter asked with a sinking spirit, he had hoped that MJ would like his choice of movie.

"I do, I do. I liked this movie." MJ answered quickly so she didn't risked hurting Peter's feelings. "But... next time I'll make the choice, okay?"

Peter smiled and shrugged. "You're the boss. Now let's get started."

Peter hit Play on the remote and the two of them leaned back close to each other in the sofa. For the next 185 minutes they watched and laughed at the film, broke their silence from time to time to make funny little remarks about the story, they ate from the pizza and of course they giggled whenever Doctor Manhattan was shown naked on screen. Just enjoying the film and each others company. When the film was over they took a quick go through in the films extra features.

"You know..." Peter said when he turned the TV off. "Alan Moore is a fantastic comic book writer and all. But I can't help but think that he looks like a complete psychopath."

"Yeah. He looks like the kind of guy you expect to have all his ex-girlfriends in his fridge. But anyway, here, I think it's time to reveal the masterpiece."

MJ picked up the plastic cask, opened it up and put it's content on two plates they had brought with them. She then poured some whipped cream on top of it.

"Here. Try this."

"What is it?"

"It's pear-pie."

Peter looked down at the pastry that his girlfriend just had handed to him. "Come again?"

"It's pearpie. You know, like apple-pie but with pears." MJ explained with much enthusiasm.

"Wow. You took the most american thing there is and turned it... canadian."

"Just eat it, smartass. I took it out of the oven just before I came over."

Peter dug this spoon into the pie and scooped up a tiny bit that he put in his mouth.

"Oh my god!" he cried out. "MJ, this tastes amazing."

"You're welcome." MJ said with a smile.

Despite being full from the pizza, the two kids ate the whole pie with large appetite.

"MJ, that was delicious." Peter said and patted his stomach when he was done with his plate. "I didn't know you were such a great cook."

"Well, you know, a girl can't live on only burgers and french fries."

"Yeah. So, what do you wanna do now?"

MJ shuffled closer to Peter in the sofa, put her hand behind his neck and her face really close to his.

"How about a snug?" she asked.

"A snug?"

"Yeah, like they say in the Harry Potter movies."

"Oh. Okay."

Their lips connected and the world around them seemed to disappear for a while. They leaned back more in the couch and made it more comfortable for themself.

"Mmmnnm. MJ, you smell great." Peter said between the smoochings.

"Mmmmffank you." MJ replied, as good as she could with her lips lips locked with Peter's.

"No really. That perfume -mmmmm- is great. You smell... mmmmnnn- you smell just like candy."

MJ broke apart from Peter and looked at him.

"Petey."

"Yeah?"

"Are you really gonna talk NOW?"

"Sorry. You know me, I just can't keep quiet. Not even when I got my tongue inside someone else. I just--"

"Peter." she interrupted him again.

"Yeah."

"I love you, but please, shut up."

"Shutting up now."

They kissed eachother again, and this time Peter managed to control his tongue (in more then one way). After some minutes, they were however interrupted by MJ's cell phone ringing from within her purse.

Dum dum dee dee-dee dum dum dee dee

"Sorry. Gotta take that."

Mary Jane reached over Peter to grab her purse, but she couldn't reach it. So she crawled over him to get closer to the bedside table she had put it on. While doing so, she not only pushed him back into the couch, but also managed to slam him in the face with her right breast.

"Oof!"

"Oh god! I'm so sorry. I'm not fully used to them yet, it's like they have a mind of their own."

"Sure... no harm done." Peter said as he rubbed his sore cheek. "Feel free to do it again sometime."

"Just so you know, that does not count as second base."

"For you perhaps."

MJ picked up her purse and dug out her phone which she quickly answered.

"Hello? LIZ!?! Oh my god, it's been ages! No you're not interrupting anything."

Peter frowned, that's not what he thought about it. He laid down on the sofa and looked straight up in the ceiling, he understood pretty well that make-out time was over now. MJ on the other hand was overjoyed that her old best friend had called her.

"Oh my god, how are you doing? That's great. Thank you, I'm doing great myself. No, I'm at Peter's place right now."

Liz Allan had been MJ's closest friend a few months back. She had at first been kind of disapproving of MJ's and Peter's relationship, because of his label as a nerd and them hanging around with the 'cool' people. But Liz had eventually warmed up to Peter, she finally saw him for the nice guy he is and the two of them became on good terms with eachother. It had however turned out that she had a serious mutant-phobia, and treated their newest class member, Kitty Pryde, who was a former member of the X-Men, like she was dirt under her nails. Liz' racist crap had put a strain on her and MJ's friendship, but then it turned out that Liz was a mutant herself, to her own great shock. She moved away from school and went to learn how to control her new powers at the Xavier's school for gifted youngsters, much to Kitty's annoyance since she herself got kicked out of there. MJ was hoping that Liz had got over her mutantphobia after living there for a while.

"So... how are you doing over there at the big X-mansion?" MJ asked. "Wow, sounds cool. Say, how are things between you and Bobby Drake? No, I only ask because you two seemed on pretty friendly terms last time I saw you."

Peter smiled to himself. He then rolled over on to his stomach and looked at Mary Jane who has sat herself down in the chair. MJ was quiet for a moment as she listened to Liz, then she got a strange look on her face.

"No... No, you're wrong, that's not me..." She then aimed the phone away from her mouth and whispered to Peter; "She saw us on TV and she's sure I'm Jackpot."

"Go figures." Peter said.

"No Liz, you're wrong..." MJ spoke into the phone. "Oh. She says the news showed us two kissing."

"Then maybe it's no idea to lie to her."

"Okay. Fine, Liz. I admitt, I am Jackpot. Well, it's kinda long story... I got pumped up on a miracle-drug that were poured into the water system by a mad scientist. No really. Yeah, I know, now Kenny is like the only one left without superpower." She was silent for a short while when Liz spoke, then she answered her. "Peter? No, Peter is..."

MJ looked over at Peter, who lazely had leaned against the edge of the sofa. And now gravity had cought a grab of him and caused him to tip over the side and down to the floor.

"Whoa going down!"

Thump

"Peter is the same old Peter." MJ deadpanned. "You know, he has been a such great guy during all this. I admit this whole thing made it pretty rough between us in the beginning, but we talked about it and we're adjusting. He's such a sweetie, really."

Mary Jane blew Peter a kiss which Peter, who was just getting up from the floor, catched with his mouth and chewed on for a long time.

Liz' voice could be heard speaking from the phone, and MJ was happily surprised to hear what she said.

"Really? No way. Peter, turn on your computer! There's a thing on the web we gotta check out. Hey Liz, we gotta get togather someday. Don't you have springbreak too? Okay, just pop by someday and we can make the town or something. Okay I'll tell him that, fine, take care. Bye bye." And by that, MJ hang up her phone. "Liz says hi."

Peter sat down in front of his computer and loggen on to the internet. "Cool. Haven't heard from her in a while."

"Yeah, she said she's been kinda bissy over there at the school. Here, she told about something we gotta check out."

MJ sat down in Peter's lap and started typing on the keyboard.

"Did you know we have our own pages on wikipedia?" MJ asked as she logged on to the online encyclopedia.

"No I did not." Peter answered a little surprised. "I'd never googled my own name."

"Wow, look at this. This's so cool. They have articles about everything we been doing lately. With pictures from the news and everything."

Peter leaned his chin on MJ's shoulder and wrapped his arms around her as they read what it said about them on the site. He was surprised how neutral and fair the articles were, the text simply told what the two of them had been doing without making judgements.

"I figured Jameson would had logged on and made us come out as total monsters." he said.

"Look at this picture. That's not my best angle, I'll tell ya." MJ complained.

"No, but this is." Peter chuckled when they scrolled down to a picture showing Jackpot taking a bow to the camera. And giving a pretty good view down her suits top when doing so.

"Oh god..." MJ whined.

"Ha! That one must have made a few internet nerds happy. Now the're just waiting for you to have a wardrobe malfunction."

"Let's check out a link, shall we?" MJ insisted as she rather not wanted to think about that.

MJ clicked on a internet address and they came to a site that showed a lot of Spider-man merchandise.

"Oh no..." Peter said as if it was his turn to whine. "It's those darn people again. The're getting money off my name and I'm not getting a dime for it."

MJ didn't seem to take so harsh as her boyfriend did. "Look, they are allready gonna give out a Spider-man-Jackpot-set of action figures. People could order the limited prototype version if they sign up."

"Wow." Peter said and pretended to be awe-struck. "You're using the term 'action figures' instead of dolls. Marry me, please."

MJ sniggered. "Show me a big-ass diamond ring and I'll might, Tiger."

"Yeah right. If I start saving now, with the salary I'm getting at the Bugle, I'll might afford it in about... fifty years."

"Can't you lend me the money to order this? It would be so cool to own an action figure of myself."

"You seriously want one of those? Wow, sometimes I don't know wich one of us is the biggest nerd."

"Oh you know me, Petey. I might have the look of an cheerleader, but I'm a nerdgirl at heart. But please, can't you borrow me the money?"

"MJ... I'm pretty sure the Kingpin will get a share of that money."

"But he's in jail, right?"

"Yeah, but still... There's a small chanse he might."

"Oh please please please pretty please with sugar on it. All my last money went to the dentist. I'm flat-busted... um, broke, I mean broke."

Peter felt that he just had to submit. He couldn't say no to MJ's big beautiful and pleading green eyes. "Okay then..."

"Yes! Thank you." MJ cheered and gave Peter a big smacking kiss of gratitude. "I'll order them right now."

"Guess I won't be having lunch for a good while. And now I don't know what to give you for your birthday."

"You can give me a new thighmaster. I broke mine a few days ago."

"Ha! I'll give you a pipeline to work on, Wondergirl."

The two lovebirds smiled together and wrapped their arms tighter around each other in a long and tender embrace.

* * *

"Peter! MJ! Could you both come down here please!" Aunt May's voice called from down the living room.

MJ hopped down from Peter's lap and the two teenagers walked down the stair hand in hand.

"What is it, Aunt May?" Peter asked when they saw his aunt sitting in the couch in front of the TV.

"Do you care to explaine this to me?" the grey-haired woman said and pointed towards the TV-screen. On the screen was a news program that right now showed footage from yesterday when Spider-man and Jackpot fought Menace on the streets of New York, and then May fastforward to a pictures of the two heroes in a long and deep kiss.

_"Oh how I rue the day I learned her to use the TiVo." _Peter thought.

"So... Either I got a cheating nephew with a thing for redheads, or there's something really wierd going on here that you two are not telling me." Aunt May said as she stood up and crossed her arms. She gave the two kids that look that Peter dreaded so much.

"Should we- shoulde we tell her?" MJ asked Peter.

"Well, we're screwed, so... Yeah."

"Okay. May, don't me mad about us. But we can explaine this."

"Oh really? Do tell." the older woman said.

Peter and MJ spent about an half hour to explaine the whole thing to Aunt May, and to answer all her question. Afterward, she was quite stunned.

"Oh my..." she said as she sat down in the couch again. "And your mother doesn't know a thing about it?"

"No. Not yet." MJ answered. "I'm gonna tell her someday."

"Wow, is there anything in our life that gets a chance to be normal?"

"Doesn't seem very likely. I've found out that life is like a big box of bugs. You open it up and it all just spread out all over the floor." Peter said. MJ gave him a look that basically told him to stop joking around for the moment.

"This... this is kinda big. But I guess it could been much worse." May said. "Peter's looking after you, right MJ?"

"Yes he is. You got a wonderful nephew, Aunt May."

"Oh please. You guys are making me blush." Peter said, mimicing bashfulness.

The next moment MJ's cellphone beeped from inside her pocket.

"It's my mom, she says I gotta come home right now. I better do as she says." MJ said when she checked the text message.

"Okay, but I'll see you tomorrow, right?" Peter asked.

"Of course, Tiger."

"And if your mother ever freak out about this, just have her talk to me, okay Mary Jane?" Aunt May said.

"Thanks."

Mary Jane said good bye to Aunt May and kissed Peter on the cheek before she took her purse and walked out the door. Peter looked at his aunt after the door went shut. She looked at him for a while, then she said;

"I think I'm gonna make myself a cup of tea."

She then went to the kitchen and left Peter alone and befuddled in the hall.

* * *

**AN: Wow, this chapter became way longer then I intended.**


	29. Chapter 29

"Okay, Miss Cooper. Why did you page me down here?"

Police captain Frank Quaid looked at the young forensic officer who darted back and forward in the room she been placed in while they rebuilded the forensic lab.

"Oh you're gonna love this, Captain." she said as she put on a pair of rubber gloves and lifted up something heavy. "Take a look at this."

Carlie lifted a large heavy axe and put on the table in front of the captain.

"Is that the thing we confiscated from the hostage situation downtown?" he asked.

"You bet your butt it is. This one of the weapons that the supercriminal Menace used against those two superheroes. And as you know, we managed to snatch this before the feds did."

Captain Quaid scratched his chin. "An axe? You think a gun or something would be more efficient."

"Yeah, but this is no ordinary axe. I made some test and check this out."

Carlie handed the captain a clipboard with a paper she printed out from her computer.

"So? What does that tell you." she asked.

"That I feel just like Mark Harmon in Navy CIS." the senior officer deadpanned and handed back the clipboard, which he hadn't understand the numbers on.

"Oh that is a good show. Michael Weatherly is so hot."

"Carlie."

"Sorry... So, I thought this thing was a little odd so I tested it, and the blade showed some funny result. That showed positive for pure adamantium."

Captain Quaid looked up from the axe to Carlie. "Miss Cooper, I don't have a masters degree in chemistry."

"Adamantium is only one of the hardest materials on Earth." the young woman said with rising enthusiasm. "It's harder then diamonds, extremely rare and cost millions per ounce. This axe can slash through anything, and when used by someone with, say, super-strenght... then this thing is way dangerous than any gun I know of."

"Good thing we got it now then."

"Here comes the good thing, however. I searched the axe for fingerprints, and found this."

She hit a key on the keyboard and on the computer screen a picture of fingerprint showed up. It was however a rather warped and enlarged version of a fingerprint.

"Is it just me or does that look like a rather weird print? This can't be from a normal human." the captain said, and Carlie nodded.

"Oh I totally agree with you. This print obviously comes from that Menace. At first there were just no idea to even search for similar prints in our archives, that was bound to fail, however... I did found some identifiable points and ridges that I thought I could use as a starting point and run a check for any prints in our own archive that held any kind of similarity."

Captain Quaid nodded. "Mhm. And?"

"And I draw a blank. BUT! Then I thought about something. Adamantium is really expensive, right? Plus the government demads that you have a certain license to handle it. So to get a hold of even the slightest amount you have to own a multi-billion dollar company or something."

"Go on."

"So I ran a check if there were any people working for, or with, such a company that could been in the police archive. And voilá!"

Another picture came up on the computer screen, this time a mugshot of a blond woman around the age twenty-five to twenty-eight.

"I'm pretty sure this is our guy... or gal." Carlie said with pride.

"You're telling me this woman is Menace?" Quaid said with some skepticism.

"Well, you know, stranger things has happen'd. After all, we got mutants, spider-people, norse gods and aliens running around."

"That is true. So who is this girl then?"

Carlie adjusted her glasses and took a closer look at the profile on the screen.

"Her name is Lillian Hollister, but goes by the nickname 'Lily'. Top graduate at Empire State University. Got herself a nice job as a scientist at the Roxxon Corporation. Almost two year ago, however, she applied for a job at Oscorp, which they gave to Doctor Otto Octavius. The one with the metal arms you know. Lily here didn't liked that, so she broke into the Oscorp facility and tried to steal some classified formulas. When she got arrested, her father, who was some fancy DA, pulled a few strings and Miss Mad scientist here just disappeared from the face of the earth."

"Did you say Oscorp? As in Norman Osborn-Oscorp?"

"Exactly. Didn't he turned himself into some kind of green monster?"

A smile appeared on Captain Quaid's face. "Now that's just too good to be a coincident. Can you ensure me that this fingerprint belongs to this woman, Carlie?"

"I'm ninety-eight percent sure it does, Cap. Her fingerprint have several points matching the ones of Menace."

"Then I'll trust your judgement. I'll sent out a warrant for this girl right away, she's our head suspect from now on." the police officer said and turned around to leave the room.

"Um, captain?" Carlie called out after him. "If this woman really is a supercriminal... shouldn't we contact SHIELD on this one?"

The NYPD officer stopped walking and thought about it for a moment. "You're right. I'll tell the boys to only keep a look out for her, not to approach her. But if we're lucky... someone else we know might already be on to this one."

* * *

It was a beautiful Wednesday, early afternoon, and some of the few friends Peter Parker had was gathered in his backyard. Kenny McFarlane, or Kong as he was sometimes called, had convinced Peter to play a game of football with him on Aunt May's lawn. Peter tried to politely decline, but Kenny had insisted. How many had ever throwed ball with a superhero, he argued. Meanwhile, MJ was watching from the porch, leaning against the rail, right next to Kitty Pride.

"So... how's the superhero-life treating you?" the mutant girl asked.

"You guys figured out it too, huh?" MJ asked back without being surprised. She was getting used to this by now.

"Yeah. Wasn't really that hard after seeing you two smooching on the news. What does Peter think about you having your own costume-life?"

"Well..." MJ said while reflecting over it. "I have to admit it took a toll on our relationship, but we worked our way through it and we're adjusting. You know, crimefighting looked much funnier on TV when you guys did it. I didn't realize how serious it was when you're actually in there. I mean, the whole going up against crazy people, risking your life and all that."

"I hear that. They don't tell you about things like that in the brochures."

The two teen girls smiled warmly at each other. This was nice, cracking jokes and sharing a good time. Things had been really tense between the two of them. Kitty had dated Peter while he and MJ were broken up because he thought that he couldn't protect her. But after Mary Jane had been abducted by a mad clone Peter realized how much she really meant for him and the two had rekindled their relationship. The break up had left Kitty devestated, and the fact that all three of them now went to the same class didn't help. In time, however, things had warmed up, specially thanks to the fact that Kitty had taken interest in their classmate Kenny.

"Kitty, I'm propably gonna regrett bringing this thing up, but... How was Peter when you guys were together, in costume?" MJ asked, somewhat hesitant.

"How he was? Well... he was fun to be with, but... to be fair, he was never as honest about our relationship as he is with yours. If someone asked then if we were together, he'd just avoided to answer. He just wasn't as comfortable with me out in the open, and it wasn't just because I was a famous mutant. But he don't seem to have that problem with you guys."

"Yeah... yeah, we- we do feel comfortable around eachother out there. In one way, it has strengthen the bond between us."

"Plus you got to kick Michelle the bitch's ass." the brunette pointed out.

"Yeah that WAS fun." the redhead agreed.

"And these days you get to do the horizontal mambo in the girl's dressing room." Kitty said with a sly smirk on her lips.

"Oh come on. You don't believe in that too, do you?"

"There's no smoke without fire, girlfriend."

"You're saying the talk about you and Kong making out under the bleachers are true too, huh?" MJ said, and now it was her time to smirk.

"So how about the economy? Crazy, right?" Kitty answered quickly, anxious to change the subject.

MJ started to laugh at her friend's reaction, and soon Kitty started to laugh too as it rubbed off on her. Their laughter however ended when they both saw Kong fall down to the ground onto his back as he catched a hard football from Peter. Kitty ran hastily out to Kenny's side.

"With did you do?!" she yelled at Peter.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to use that much strenght." Pete said as he rubbed his neck in guilty conscience. "You okay, big guy?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Kenny groaned. "I broke the fall... with my back."

While Kitty was bissy giving Peter a angry telling-off, MJ was standing a bit to the side and just watched the spectacle. When Kenny was trying to convince Kitty that it looked worse then it was, so that his male ego wouldn't take too much damage, MJ could hear how a car drove up along the sidewalk on the other side of the Parker's house. Then then heard how a familiar voice thanked the driver for the ride and how a car door slammed. MJ started to walk around the house to check out iif it was who she think it was, to which Peter asked where she were going.

As MJ rounded the corner of the house, she saw a girl her age with long blonde hair. Mary Jane gave out a high-pitched scream, and the girl gave out an equally high scream when she noticed MJ. They then ran up to each other and gave each other a hug, still screaming of joy. Peter, with his fingers in his ears, remarked; "It's cute when dolphins says hi."

"Oh my god Liz! It's so good to see you." MJ said to the blonde girl.

"You too, MJ. It's been way to long." Liz Allan said back to her best friend.

"I know I said you could come by any day, but I didn't expect you to show up today already."

"Happy surprise! Hi Peter."

"Hi Liz. You look, well, good."

"Thank you."

Kenny and Kitty now came up to them to see what was going on.

"Holy crap. Liz?" Kenny said in happy surprise.

"Kong!" Liz chirped and gave the big guy a hug. "Have you lost weight?"

"No, just exchanged the fat for some muscles."

Then Liz noticed Kitty standing next to Kong, and the atmosphere got pretty awkward fast. "Oh... um, hi."

"Yeah... hi." Kitty greeted back.

"You, er... You look good. Uh, Bobby and the others told me to say hi from them."

"Oh, thanks. Tell them I said hi back."

"So, um, how's the hell that is high school treating you?"

"It's got bad days and it's got good days." Kitty said with a shrug. "How's the life of the X-men doing for you?"

"Good, but I kinda miss the real school, believe it or not." Liz said, and her mouth grow a tiny little smile.

"Really? I would change Midtown High for beating the snot out of The Brotherhood any day."

"Yeah, that is a funny part."

The conversation seemed to have ease the tension that was hanging in the air, it looked like Liz wanted to say that she was sorry for treating Kitty the way she did, but she was too proud (or embarrassed) to actually say it. Kitty seemed fine with it, as long as she was sorry.

"So, I would love to stay here and catch up on things..." Peter told the rest of the gang while looking at his watch. "But I have to go to the Bugle in less then an hour."

"We can go with you. Liz and I are gonna paint the town red. Or something." MJ said with a happy tone. "You guys wanna come along?"

"Thanks but we gotta go and finish the book report." Kitty pointed out.

"So we have to catch up with you guys later." Kenny told.

"Okay then," Peter said. "let's go before we miss the bus."

As the three of them picked up their backpacks, and Kenny and Kitty left, Liz leaned in towards MJ and said;

"Seems like Kitty and Kong gets along pretty well."

"Oh you don't even know half of it." MJ smirked.

* * *

Mary Jane and Liz took the bus downtown along with Peter, and then the three of them split up as Pete rushed off towards The Daily Bugle. The two gal pals walked around and catched up on everything they had missed and checked out all the stores they used to go to before. They also talked alot about both their new lifes as superheroes.

"So you're really gonna go with the name Jackpot?" Liz asked.

"Yeah, what's so funny about that?" MJ wondered.

"Nothin'. I just don't understand where you got it from."

"It's kind of a thing between just me and Peter."

"Okay, but is there really any idea when you two are the only ones getting it?" Liz asked again.

"Like your name is so special."

"Hey. Firestar is a cool name."

"Yeah maybe, but Jackpot is cool too, and simple. Peter says he likes it."

Liz thought about something for a second and then said; "You know, I always knew Peter was a nice guy. But I didn't realize how cool he really was before the whole catching-on-fire-thing."

"Oh really? Cool enough to try making out with?" MJ said with a sly expression on her face.

"Oh come on! I told you a hundred times I'm sorry about that. I was drunk, and he did turn me down, MJ."

"Relax, Liz. I forgave you a long time ago, it's ancient history by-- Did you hear that?" the red-headed girl suddenly reacted.

"Hear what?"

"Shhh!"

They had stopped outside a display window. MJ stepped closer to it and put her face close to the glass so she could see into the store without the sun reflecting into her eyes. She watched throught the window for a short moment and then went "Oh crap, duck!"

She grabbed on to Liz and pulled her to the side just as the window shattered from the inside. What seemed like a huge dust cloud, mixed with thousand of dollar bills flied out of the store, passed the two girls and moved down the street in great speed, scaring off people that it swirled pass them like a small desert tornado.

"What the heck was that thing?!" Liz asked as she dusted of some sand and broken glass from her clothes.

"It's trouble, I'll tell you that." MJ answered. She always listen carefully to Peter's stories about the crazy things he had fought in his days, and MJ was pretty sure what this was. "Come on! We gotta go find somewhere were we can change."

"Oh yeah! Allan and Watson, rushing off to save the day!"


	30. Chapter 30

"Come on Liz! This looks like a good place."

The two teenage girls snuck into an empty alley and pulled out their superhero outfits from their bags. Liz pulled out her X-men uniform while MJ took out her Jackpot-suit and quickly pulled her blouse over her head.

"Whoa." Liz suddenly said as she stopped changing and just gawked at MJ.

"What? Mary Jane asked as she stood there with her upperbody only covered in her bra.

"Damn, MJ! I thought they just looked like that in that suit, but that's all you."

"Are you gonna make a whole thing about it too?" MJ said somewhat annoyed, then turned around and continued to get dressed.

"I'm just saying you gone a long way since you used to stuff your bra."

"That was only till the left one caught up!" MJ said rather cutting while she struggled to get her arms into the sleeves of her suit.

"And what are your dear Petey-boy thinking about them?" Liz asked as she herself turned around and hopped into her own suit.

"He's the perfect gentleman. But I've noticed him catch an extra look a few times."

"You mean you haven't let him, you know... 'cop a feel' yet?"

"Liz! We're in a hurry, and you wanna gossip about who went how far with who?"

"Okay okay. I'm just curious. There, I'm ready to go."

And by that, Liz activated her powers and both her and her costume got entirely covered in yellow flames. MJ was at first a little bit startled by the sudden surge of fire that spread over her friend, but she calmed down almost immediately since she already seen Liz' powers before. And to be fair, people who can lit themself on fire without being burned is one of the less crazy things she seen in her life by now.

MJ pulled down her yellow goggles over her face and gave out a small smile at Liz who smiled back at her.

"Okay. Let's roll."

* * *

In a dark and filthy alley, Flint Marko sat over a cardboard box that was turned upside down and counted all the money he just stolen. Marko was a brutish looking man, and he was just as hard-ass as his looks could tell you. In a way, Marko was one of the worst people who could ever get superpowers. Having the simple mind of a common thug, Marko brought nothing but destruction in his way. Just a few minutes ago he had robbed several stores and killed at least three people who was in the way, and slipped away before the police or SHIELD had arrived. And now he was planning to hit that bank just a few blocks down street. He counted the money again, it was only a few thousand bucks, but the day had only started.

"Yeah, we gotta need to see a receipt for all that money, sir." a girl's voice said behind him.

Flint Marko quickly turned around and saw the young superhero Jackpot and and the X-men member Firestar appearing with their arms crossed and their faces beaming with confident.

He might not be the smartest egg in the basket, but Marko was far from stupid. He exploded in a huge blast of sand, which ripped off the clothes on his body, and caught the two young heroines with total surprise. The two girls was pushed out of the alley and was slammed into the open street, the sand cloud managed to quench Firestar's fire too so the young mutant suddenly found herself flamed off.

Jackpot lifted herself up from the ground and spitted out a whole lot of sand and coughed.

"-ppfffft-- Koff- kaff! Oh man... he's INSIDE me..." She helped her partner up on her legs. "Liz-- I mean-- Firestar... You okay?"

"-Koff-koff- Yeah, I think so... Good start, huh?"

"Yeah, not really."

Then a woman screamed loudly in horror and a shadow towered over the two young heroes. Flint Marko appeared in front of them, transformed into a giant sand version of himself. With a mad look on his face, he raised his right arm into the air and his fist turned into a giant hammer. Jackpot grabbed Firestar and managed to jump out the mutated villain's reach just before he slammed his immense fist down upon them, saving them both from being smashed into the bottom of the small crater made by the sandy giant's fist.

Jackpot dropped Firestar when they were down on the ground again and the blonde X-man immediately turned on her flamepowers, again covering herself with yellow fire. Firestar flew up in the air and closed in on the super-criminal. She shot out a thick ray of fire from her hands right at him, and several bits of sand on Marko got singed and fell down to the ground in chunks as the giant man screamed out in anger.

Then Jackpot jumped in and delivered a punch right into Marko's stomach, only to notice that her arm disappeared halfway to it's elbow into Marko's body.

"Eww..." Firestar remarked above Jackpot's head. "That's totally gross."

The sandman's chest then started to change, an extra fist grew out on his upper body, shot out like a bullet and slammed into Jackpot, making her fly down the street. She landed on the sidewalk, right next to a elderly couple to was hiding behind a car.

"How y'all doin'?" she asked homouresly before got up on her legs again and jumped back into the fight without waiting for an answer.

The red-headed heroine jumped up to their enemy's head, clenched both her hands together into one big fist and struck him hard right in the face. The strikes only effect was that it shattered half of Marko's head, which reshaped itself in just a few seconds.

"Okay, now we established that doesn't work." Jackpot said before she dodged from Marko's hammer-like fist.

Firestar flied over the sandman's head and sent another wave of fire down upon him, causing more sand to be burnt. Marko tried to smack her down to the ground but she managed to manoeuvre herself from being hit and sent another fire ray on him.

"I can't believe we're fighting a guy made out of kitty litter. Can my rogue-gallery be any lamer?" Jackpot joked after ducking from another sandy blow.

"What? What was that?" Firestar pondered over that one.

"It was a joke, 'Star." the readhead explained.

"Uh-huh... Where did you get that from all the sudden?" the blonde asked.

"Well when you're hanging with Spidey as much as I do you're bound to pick something up."

The giant sandman swiped his fist along the ground, trying to brake Jackpot's legs, but she just jumped up in the air and landed gracefully as a cat on the ground next to where Firestar had landed for the moment.

"Okay, punching him aint working." Jackpot told her fiery friend. "But the fire-thing does, so keep that up."

"I'm righ on it."

The two girls jumped the opposite direction of each other as they moved out of way for Marko's fist which totally demolished the car behind them.

"Dude, listen, it's okay, I feel your pain." Jackpot addressed towards her opponent. "I was at the beach just the other day and I got sand in places I rather not discuss."

"You went to the beach?" Firestar asked why flying over the sandman's head.

"Yeah. How so?"

"Did you wear one of those big hats you always have when you go to the beach? The ones that looks like a UFO."

"Are you dissing on my hats now, 'Star?"

"I'm just asking."

"RAAAGGGGHHH!!! Shut up!!! Shut up!!!" Marko suddenly yelled out in mad fury while desperadely trying to land a hit on the two heroes.

"Hey, the walking sandcastle talks." Jackpot cracked.

"And he sounds pissed."

Jackpot jumped to the side and avoided another one of Marko's punches. She then bounced off a lamppost and flied with great speed through the air towards Marko while putting her legs and arms close to her torso and curling up into a ball. She hit Flint Marko's body like a cannonball, flied straight through him and made him brake apart into a big pile of sand and dust. It may not have caused any major damage to him, but it worked as a good distraction.

"Raaagghh! Kill 'em!" he growled while slowly putting himself together. "Kill 'em both! Both the mutant slut an' the ginger freak!"

"Ginger?" Jackpot said as both she and Firestar started to beat on the rising pile of sand. "Listen, you big piece of dookie. I might be a red-head, but my skin have absolutely no problem with the sun."

"You do have some freckles." 'Star pointed out while sending another ray of fire at the sandy villain.

"Yes, and F-Y-I, my boyfriend thinks they're adorable."

The semi-humanoid heap of sand exploded like in a giant gust of wind. Firestar managed to fly out of harms way before she was caught in it. Jackpot was however to close to react in time. The green-clad hero flied like a leaf in a desertstorm, and when she landed Marko was already reformed and smashed her into a car, forcing the car up on the sidewalk and against the hiding civilians.

"Get away from her!" Firestar screamed and throwed out a lot of fire at the sandy villain to get his full attention, which she did.

Jackpot shook off the dizziness the hit had given her as she got up, and she could then hear crying and whimpering from the other side of the car. She peek over the car and saw a young woman and a young man, the man which held his left arm that was now twisted in a weird angle.

"Oh my god...! Are you guys okay?" the young hero asked.

"I-I-I think he broke his arm..." the young woman said terrified while her boyfriend moaned in pain.

"You gotta get out of here. Take him to the nearest hospital." Jackpot said while helping the man up on his legs. "Get out of here, now!"

The young couple moved away from the scene as fast as they could while Jackpot stayed behind.

_"That was so stupid of me."_ she thought. _"This is not a game. We have to finish this before anyone else get hurt. But how do you beat a guy made out of sand?"_

Then a lightbulb went on inside her head. She had spotted a store just half a block down the road that had what she needed.

"Hey 'Star! Keep him occupied for a while, will you?!" she yelled while sprinting down the street.

"Sure, no problem." the young mutant responded sarcasticly without looking at her friend's way.

Firestar moved out of the way from another fist made out of sand and flied upwards and around the criminal in a spiral streak of fire.

"Come on. The hammer thing is allready getting old." the fire covered girl said while ducking from another blow.

However then the sandman's left arm exploded and sprayed sand all over 'Star which put out her fire again. She fell to the ground and landed in a pile of sand that started to move up her legs and cover more and more of her body. Soon she was partially covered in it.

"I'm gonna kill ya, ya mutant freak!" the sand giant said while what used to be his legs enclosed itself around the girl.

Firestar tried to turn on her flame again, but it was put out as the sand covered all of her. She desperately tried to breathe for air, only to find sand moving down her mouth and throat. She saw stars twinkle before her eyes as she started to lose consciousness.

* * *

"I'm telling you, Robbie. These two are gonna be the new thing."

Peter was eavesdropping on Mister Jameson and Mister Robertson who was talking not too far away from his desk.

"You really think so Jonah?"

"I'm positively sure about about it. Spider-man and his new dame are gonna be hotter then Brangelina. I can feel it. I want everyone to dig up everything they can on the two."

"If you say so, but I don't think it's a good idea to turn this paper into some sleezy tabloid about superheroes."

Peter wasn't really sure what he was gonna think about the conversation. Any publicity from Jameson was bad publicity.

"Hey Jonah! Robbie!" yelled Ned Leeds that ran up towards the two editors-in-chief. "Listen to this. One of my guys in the NYPD just told me that Jackpot and one of the X-men are fighting a guy made out of sand downtown."

"You're serious!? Then what are you doing here??? Get out there! And don't you come back unless you got a good story for me!!" Jameson yelled with such strenght that he dropped his cigar on the floor, and Leeds were out of there before he had picked it up again.

"Did... did he say 'a guy made out of sand'?" Robbie asked.

Peter, however, sat frozen in his seat and his face showed the expression of fear over what he just had overheard. "MJ..."

* * *

"Spring-cleaning, you son of a beach!"

The sandman suddenly stopped for a moment as he felt something being forced into his body. He turned his head and noticed a metal tube sticking out of his back, and he also saw Jackpot standing behind him with some kind of dark blue object, a little higher then her waist. She showed a slyly smile as she pushed a switch on the strange machine and a low 'vvrrmmmmmmmm' was heard.

Marko then felt his entire backside disobey him as it was sucked into the tube, travelling through a long hose and then shut in inside a tight container. He tried to grab the tube to remove it but before he could reach it even more of his body was sucked into it, soon his arms just fell off since they lost the connection with his shoulder and Firestar was uncovered from her sandy death trap.

Jackpot grabbed the vacuum nozzle and jammed it even further into Marko's body. He screamed in anger and frustration and tried to slip away, but the machine was too powerful and soon the entire him was sucked up inside the vaccum cleaner.

"What- -koff- what took you -puh- so long? -pffft-" Firestar asked after she was able to breath again.

"You want some cheese with that whine?" Jackpot responded while sucking up the last parts of sand on the ground, including the tiny pieces that had been burned to glass, and then helped her friend get up on her feets.

"Fine... -puh- thanks for saving me."

"Don't thank me. Thank the people that makes industrial sized vacuum cleaners with extra long cord."

"Then thanks whoever they are."

There was a low thumping from inside the vacuum's receptacle as Flint Marko tried to get out from his new prison, but he was just too tightly crammed to be able to move enough to brake through the metal canister.

"You think that thing will hold him? 'Star asked.

"I think so, at least till the SHIELD-guys arrive, I hope. Come on, let's get out of here before people start to ask questions."

Firestar extinguished the fire on just her hands and arms, and then took Jackpot by her hands and flied away with her friend hanging in her arms under her as the police stepped closer to the vacuum cleaner that was now left alone on the street.

* * *

The two heroines was very soon back in the alley were they left their bags and civilian clothing.

"Thank you for flying with Starfire Airlines. We hope you've had a pleasant trip." Liz joked as she put MJ down on the ground and let go of her hands.

"Flying is cool, but I think I prefer webswinging." MJ said.

"How can that be cooler then flying?"

"I don't know, it just are. Flying just aint that thrilling. Plus it's-- Aahhhh!"

Both the two girls screamed out as a colorful shadow landed next to them.

"Man, I'm I glad to see you two are okay." Peter said and pulled of his mask.

"Peter! Don't scare us like that!" MJ yelled and slapped her boyfriend on the arm.

"Yeah! Someone should put a bell around your neck." Liz agreed.

"Hey! I was worried about you two. I snuck out from work when I heard you guys were fighting that sandguy."

"We're big girls, Peter. You don't need to babysit us all the time." MJ said while giving out a small smile.

"So none of you got hurt?"

"Nope."

"Well, there was that time when he smashed you into that car." Liz pointed out to MJ.

"Oh my god...!" Peter gasped.

"I'm fine, Tiger. I'm made of tougher stuff then that. You should go back to the Bugle before they notice you're gone."

"Yeah... guess so. They might wonder why I have to spend such a long time inside the men's room. Okay, I'll skedaddle, but if you ever need help, don't be to proud to ask for my help, okay?"

MJ and Liz nodded at him, and Peter then web-zipped over their heads and disappeared over the rooftops while waving goodbye to the two of them. Then the sound of MJ's cellphone was coming out of her backpack.

"Hello? MJ said as she answered it. "Oh... hi mom. Nothing, I'm just out with a friend. No it's not Peter. I got more friends then him you know. No... I- I don't think it's anybody you know. I-I rather not say... Oh come on! Mom--! Fine... I'll be home in half an hour. Bye." She then hung up her phone and looked pretty bummed out. "That was my mom. She wants me to come home right away."

"Why didn't you tell her that you were with me?" Liz asked her.

"Well... she's kind mad at me right now. And I don't think telling her that I'm with an old friend that's now in a mutant liberation group will get her in a better mood."

"Probably not. So... what do we do now?"

"How about a race back to Queens? Winner gets to gloat in the loser's face."

"Hope you like the taste of my dust, girl!"

The two young friends quickly grabbed their bags and speeded off in the direction towards their old neighbourhood, competing towards eachother about who could get there fastest. It was a surprise that it was MJ and her running and leaping that led over Liz and her flying for the most of the time, much thanks to her reflexes that made it possible for her to turn much faster in all the corners. Liz was much faster on the straightaways, but that was to her disadvantage in these densely built areas.

"Are you even trying!?" MJ teased her friend flying shortly behind her. "I'm gonna go take a nap. Give me a tap on the shoulder when you catch up with me."

"I'm so gonna singe your favorite stuffed toy when we get there, Red!" Liz joked back with a voice full of joy.

"You leave Mister Snufflebuffle out of this, blondie!"

The people on the street beneath them heard laughter above their heads as the two heroes passed above and then flied off into the distance. For now, even if for only a little while, MJ's life seemed a little more tolerable to her. Good friends were always good to have.


	31. Chapter 31

**AN: Sorry for taking such time, been a little bissy. Again, thanks for all the reviews, they can really light up the day. But I feel there's some things to clear up. First, I think some of you are expecting a little too much from me. I'm not writing a masterpiece here, I'm no Straczynski, but I am trying my best. I also notice the spelling errors when I reread this, but you'll have to forgive me on that one. Also, in chapter 2, when MJ wakes up and discover her new body... it was not my intention to make her appear like a total stripper, I just wanted to show her own reaction to her sudden transformation. As you might noticed, a lot of superheroines are drawn that way in the comics (and Peter told us why in chapter 22, that's the same reason why engineers dont write comic books) and I wanna capture peoples reaction to it. So, if you can look past all the childish breast jokes, I hope I do her appearence justice in the rest of the story. End communication.**

* * *

"...the rebuilding continues as the people of Queens go back to their normal lifes. This is Mary Jane Watson for Midtown High's news network saying good bye."

"Aaaaaand cut. Exelent MJ, that's a keeper."

Peter turned off the camcorder and put it back in MJ's backpack. He had just filmed MJ as she reported for the school news about the mayhem and destruction caused by the Rhino a few days ago. Mary Jane was wearing a nice and elegant blue suit and skirt which made her look very much like an actual adult reporter.

"You think I should had worn my glasses? I should had worn my glasses." MJ said, doubting her own performance in front of the camera.

"No no. This is fine, MJ. Don't fix what's not broken." Peter told her.

"Well... at least I remebered to say my name right this time."

"Plus, with the glasses you kinda look like a cute librarian. Today we're going for the sexy weathergirl."

"I wanna be appreciated for my skills as a reporter, Peter, not for my looks." MJ told him, even though she knew he was joking.

"You ARE a great reporter, MJ. The fact that you got a body like Kim Kardashian is just a great bonus." he teased her.

"Nice. So, are we gonna get out of here or what?"

"Okay, let's go then."

The two kids joined hands and walked down the street, looking at all the repairing going on in the neighbourhood. After a little while, they stopped outside a display window to a television store. The eight o'clock news were on every TV-screen and Patsy Walker was anchoring.

"New York has hit the Jackpot, good folks. The new superheroine has taken the city by storm and it's people just can't get enough of her." the newsanchor told the viewers.

"You know, I've read a rumour on the web that Walker is in some superhero-wannabe team on her sparetime." Peter said.

"Shh! I wanna hear this." MJ shushed him.

"New York City's newest female hero came out of nowhere almost two weeks ago and she's been a shooting star to fame. Just two days ago she reveiled infront of the press that she was in a romantic relationship with the amazing Spider-man, New York's very own favorite hero."

A ten-mile wide smirk showed up on Peter's face.

"However, Spidey should perhaps be jealous, because his girlfriend has already shot past him in popularity."

Peter's smirk went away faster then it came.

"Recent pulls show that now Jackpot is the big apple's most popular superhero." the blonde newsanchor continued. "After stopping the supervillain Menace from detonating a bomb in the middle of Manhattan and saving the people held hostage by the criminal three days ago, the New Yorkers has taken the young hero in their hearts. Words on the internet are that she's even going to play a major role in the sequel to the Spider-man movie who's coming out on DVD this month. When asked about it, the movie's producer Avi Arad answered that the heroines presence in the movie was highly wanted by both him and the writers. No actress has been cast for the role yet, but rumours has it that Kirsten Dunst is the one that the production company wants to play against Tobey Maguire in the next film."

"Now they're gonna make a sequel?" Peter half-yelled at the TV-screen in the store window. "Ah that's just great. And how much will we get for it? I'll tell you, not a dime!" He then looked at MJ and noticed that she had a wide grin on her face.

"I'm gonna be in a movie!" she exclaimed with joy.

"It's not gonna be the real you, MJ. Just some actress playing you, and they won't pay you for it."

"Oh don't be such a grouch. Don't tell me you're mad because I'm more popular then you now."

Peter frowned. "Of course I'm mad. I had to put up with a lot of crap before people started to like me, and now you just slide in and get everything just like that." He then snapped his fingers to illustrate his point.

MJ began to caress Peter's hand to sooth him. "Don't take it so hard, Petey. Celebrity is the backside of fame, remember. And who cares what people say anyway?"

"Easy for you to say Miss Big Apples Favorite. Bah...! Man, I'll tell you, a chestburster is more popular then me."

"Let's get out of here Tiger. We got a job to do, remember?" MJ said and managed to pull Peter away from the store window before the news showed a bar graph about how many more people would rather be rescued by Jackpot then Spider-man.

The two kids sneaked into an alley like they had did so many times before by now. They took cover behind a large dumpster and started to get dressed into their superhero costumes.

"You know..." MJ said while changing, she had something on her mind she been pondering on. "I can't believe I'm getting busted by everybody we know. Nobody seems to think twice that I'm Jackpot."

"And I can't believe Aunt May is taking all this with such ease." Peter pointed out while strapping on his boots.

"Maybe she's just getting used to this stuff. I mean, her nephew is Spider-man. When you think about it, this aint that much of a stretch."

"I guess you're right, you're always right."

"Big surprise." MJ joked, then she strapped on her last boot and was then fully dressed in her Jackpot-outfit. "Ready for action, captain."

Peter looked at MJ in her costume, she dressed much faster now then before.

"Okay, let's go then." Peter then pulled down his mask over his face, took MJ by the arm and swinged away.

* * *

On a rooftop somewhere in Queens a large group of people had gathered, all of them members of a criminal organization, except for one person. That was the same guy that was holding on to the edge of the roof for all his life, praying that he was only imagining the distance between his feets and the ground.

"I'll ask ya again, where's our boss' money?" one of the mob members told the man dangling from the parapet.

"Please..." the man pleaded. "I-I don't have any money."

"Well, that's to bad. 'Caus that means all of us guys came here for nothin', but at least we get to see how to make a human pizza. Next time, you better bet on a safer horse, but I don't think you'll have to worry about-"

"Gee do you gangster guys like the sound of your own voices." a young man's voice said from behind them. All the maffia members turn around and saw the outlines of two people in the light from the setting sun.

"Who the hell is that?" one criminal asked as he shaded his eyes from the strong rays of orange light.

"We're the knights who says Ni!" the male voice spoke again, which made his partner look at him with a smile of surprise and amusement. She loved when he was this witty.

"Shit!" one other of the goons exclaimed. "It's Spider-man and that Jackpot-broad! Ice them!" In the next second, all the thugs rushed to grab the two superheroes, only for having the two teen heroes jump out of their reach and start bouncing around between them and dealing out blow after blow.

"For god's sake! Just shoot the bug AND his skank!" the highest ranking criminal yelled at his underlings who were quickly losing the fight..

"HEY!" Jackpoit snapped at him before delivering a punch to his stomach. "Spiders are not bugs, the're arachnids."

"You heard that? That's why I love her." Spidey told two goons before smacking their heads together. "Hey Jackie-poo, would you mind checking on Mister Hangy-longlegs over there?"

Jackpot giggled at the nickname 'Jackie-poo', about the same time she put her elbow in a thug's face, it was delightful to her that Peter was getting so comfortable with their pet names in the open. She went over to the edge of the roof to help the victim up, but he resisted more with her then with the maffia hitmen.

"Aaaahhh! Mutant! Mutant! Get away from me!" he screamed.

"Oh for crying out loud. I'm trying to save your life here. Stop struggling you idiot."

Jackpot lifted the man up and tried to get his feets back up on the roof, but the guy struggled so much that she had a hard time getting a grip on him. When he finally seemed to be back on the wall, he slipped and fell backwards.

"AAAHHHH-!" he screamed as he fell off the building.

"Holy-" Jackpot reacted instantly and threw herself over the edge. She managed to grab a hold of the man's arm before he had fallen out of reach and she spinned around in the air, pulled the guy closer and landed on her feets, down on the street after a fall from the tenth story, with the man, who was clearly much larger then her, in her arms. Even though she looked unharmed from landing on her feet, she frowned with her entire face.

"Yeah. That's gonna hurt tomorrow..." she groaned.

"Let go of me!" the man in her arms yellled and tried to wriggle himself free.

"Say it." Jackpot ordered rigorously.

"Wha-what?"

"Mutants are people too. Say it."

"Uh- mutants are people too..."

"See, was that so hard?"

The redheaded superheroine finally let go of the man, who immediately ran away as fast as he could, screaming.

"Aaaahhhh...!"

Jackpot formed her hands into a megaphone around her mouth and shouted; "I think the words you're looking for is 'Thank you Jackpot for saving my life', but okay! Ungrateful jerk."

Spider-man then slowly lowered himself down on a webline and stepped down on the curb next to his girlfriend. "No gratitude huh?" he asked.

"None what so ever." Jackpot answered.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but you can't win them all."

"Well, I still have more fans then you."

"Ouch with the zinger."


	32. Chapter 32

The sun had set hours ago, the night had come and with it even more of the scum of the city. The two young heroes was for the moment occupied with hinder a group of young criminals from robbing a pawnshop that's located between Queens and Brooklyn. And the teen hero Spider-man was singing as he did.

"Fist bone's connected to the face bone." he sang while punching one guy on the nose. He then took notice of the gangs angry attitude towards him and his girlfriend. "Oh come on you sourpusses, lighten up. Here, let my tell you a joke. Knock knock. Who's there? Germany. Germany who? Ve ask ze queszions!"

"Aaaghh...! Can't stand stupid jokes!" one thug angrily yelled over the jumping superhero's joke.

"Hey, if you don't start appreciate the jokes we'll tie you up right here and make you listen to him all night." Jackpot jokingly scolded the criminal.

"It WILL brake you." Spider-man added.

Jackpot blocked one kick from one thug by grabbing him by the foot and then threw him to the ground. She then turned around quickly, her red hair whiped through the air as she did, and got punched on the jaw.

The fist's owner shined up from hope after delivering the hit, but it disappeared when he noticed that the female hero merely had fliched from the impact. She moved her lower jaw up and down and in circles to get rid of the slightly tenderized feeling.

"Not bad. My turn now."

The redheaded hero slammed a uppercut on the man which knocked him out. Jackpot looked up from the unconscious criminal to the scene before her, her boyfriend had allready immobilized and webbed up the rest of the street gang to a lamppost. In the distance she could hear police sirens getting closer and closer. When they were close enough for Spidey to hear them too, he helped Jackpot climb up to safety on a roof and then the two teenagers jumped over the rooftops and faded in the darkness.

"Peter, it's over twelwe thirty." MJ pointed out when they stopped on a roof a safe distance from the crime scene. She then let out a yawn, arched her back and stretched her arms up in the air. "I'm so sleepy. Can't we just go home now?"

"I know sweetie, in a moment. I just wanna check this block out one last time. There's been a lot of stuff going here lately."

Mary Jane rubbed her eyes behind her goggles hoping that it would keep the drowsyness away, it did not however.

Peter was right that this block had stuff going on. Not long time afterwards they noticed several men came running out of an alley, like they were fleeing for their lifes, some of them clutching small bleeding wounds they had under their rent clothes.

"Now that surely looks like trouble." MJ remarked.

"You really think so? Thank you Captain Obvious." Peter joked.

"Thank YOU, Major Sarcasm."

The young couple jumped down into the dark alley and saw a large sliding door made out of steel, it hade a sign that read 'Closed for repairs.' on it. The door was wide open and clearly all the fleeing men had come from inside. Spider-man stepped in first. They walked through a long, dark corridor and then entered a large room with some furniture that was covered with plastic covers. Apparently they had entered a closed night club. On the floor there was a dead man with his face down, his suit was ripped to shreds and he lied in a puddle of blood.

"Oh man..." Jackpot gasped and put her hand over her mouth in shock. She had never seen a dead body in real life before.

After noticing the body, something he too found shocking but not to MJ's extension, Spider-man stepped past it and walked towards an half-open door. Strange sounds could be heard coming from in there. The two heroes stopped just outside the door and peeked in through the chink.

A very freakishly looking figure was hunching over a table in the dim light. The creature wore tattered clothing and his skin was partially covered in small bony plates, shaggy brown fur and red, naked flesh. A long rat-like tail extended from his lower back and flailed from side to side. The man-shaped thing did not noticed the two heroes at the door as he was fully occupied by devouring large amounts of white powder from a black briefcase on the table.

"Oh crap. It's that gross growing-bodyparts-guy again." Jackpot said in a whisper. She had talked to Peter about this guy a few days ago, but when she described him Peter had have a very hard time imagine it before him until now.

Then both the two kids gasped in shock by the scenario before them. The freaky-looking man's back was moving like he had insects crawling under his skin, then suddenly hundreds of thin bone spikes bursted out from his back and formed a bush of pointy quills, just like on a porcupine. The creature himself seemed unmoved by this gagging transformation.

"Holy-!" Spider-man cried out in surprise.

Hearing the young hero, the creature looked up at the door's direction. One yellow eye and one red eye stared back at them and the thing's entire face was covered in white powder.

"So much for the element of surprise." Jackpot said with a sigh.

The man-like monster snarled as he noticed the female hero. "You again!" he growled with his mouth full of drugs and then he launched at the two heroes with a animalistic roar.

Both Jackpot and Spider-man managed to jump out of the way of the thing's attack, he landed on the floor inside the dance room like a cat that had missed it's prey. He turned around and was hit in the face by a punch from Spider-man. Meanwhile Jackpot grabbed a hold of his tail.

"I got him!" she shouted. Then she yelped in pain as the monster's clawed foot scratched her on the leg, making a rip in her pants leg and slashed up a bleeding wound. In surprise from the pain she lost grip of the creature's tail and fell down on one knee.

Spider-man moved in closer and punched the monster again on the head. He avoided getting scratched by the creature's claws and kicked him in the chest. It seemed to recoil from that hit. Spidey was about to fire off a glob of web when he saw the creature moving right at him. He fired his webshooters but the thing dodged the weblines and came up face to face with the teen hero.

Spider-man didn't had time to react, even with his reflexes. The thing stared him right into the eyes of his mask for half a second and then he spewed out a yellowish liquid from his mouth. The disgusting fluid hit the kid right in the face and he screamed in shock and pain as the acid liquid burned through his eye lenses.

"Get away from him!" Jackpot shouted and jumped at the creature. He turned around and hit her in the stomach with a quick and hard punch that sent her flying into the bar counter, smashing it into several pieces. He then started to move with haste towards the exit.

Spider-man couldn't see anything for the moment, but he could hear his spider-sense in his head growing weaker and weaker. He figured out that their opponent was moving away from him as it tried to escape. He could not let that happen. With one hand he fired a webline at the direction his spider-sense was shouting from and hit the monster in his back, but the it span around and slashed off the web with its claws. Then it ran quicker towards the way out.

Spider-man could not let this thing get away, so he decided to try something out. Without really knowing if this would work he reached his other hand into a tiny velcro pocket he sewn on to the inside of his pants just a few days earlier and picket out something very small. He then, still blind from the acid, flicked a tiny switch on the little object, which made the buzzing in his head now coming from two sources, and threw it in the first's direction, hoping that he aimed just as good the second time. His spider-sense then faded to a silance as he heard the creature run out of the building.

"Peter! Are you okay?" a worried Jackpot cried when she got up to his side.

"Man, this shit really stings..." he answered while trying to rub away the acid from his eyes.

"Here, there's a tap behind the bar."

With MJ helping him find the water tap, which thankfully worked, Peter managed to rinse the stinging liquid out of his eyes, and with it the pain. He let out a sigh of relief when the stinging feeling in his face went away.

"I can't believe that freak threw up on me. How does it look? he asked MJ.

"Um... Not that bad. Your eyes are very red, and the eyes on your mask have kinda melted away."

Peter rubbed his eyes one more time. This was a experience he could have lived without.

"To bad that... _guy_ got away. Again." MJ muttered.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure of that."

"What do you mean?"

Peter raised a finger in the air, asking MJ to be quiet for a moment. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the tingling sensation in the back of his head. There was a low buzzing in the distance. _"I'm a genius."_ he thought to himself.

"You know, you look kinda funny without the lenses." MJ pointed out with a little smile. "What are you doing really?"

Peter answered with a question of his own. "Remember those tracer-thingies I showed you?"

"Yeah?"

"I threw one of them on Mister Skin-condition back there. I can track him with my spider-sensa-mathing if he doesn't get to far away."

"Oh my god. That's brilliant." MJ shined up and she gave Peter a rewarding kiss on the cheek. "That's why you're the brains on this team and I'm the looks." she half-joked.

Peter, being the guy he was, could not leave it at that. He had to add a joke of his own. "You know... Sometimes I wish you could appreciate me for my looks instead of my great mind, wonderful personality and fantastic sense of humour."

"Say that last thing again."

"My fantastic sense of humour."

"Huh. Well... Two out of three aint bad." MJ said with a smirk.

"Oh ha ha." Pete sarcasticly laughed. "Will you ever let me have the last word?"

"I'm your girlfriend. Of course not."

* * *

After making one anonymous phone call to the police about the dead body, and making MJ a improvised bandage from webbing and the plastic cover from the furniture, the two heores were ready to take up the hunt for their vomiting adversery.

"Don't tell me we have to go down there?" Jackpot whined while looking down at the open manhole outside the building.

"Sorry sweetie, but he most have gone down here." Spider-man then crawled down the hole and climbed down the ladder down into the sewer. Jackpot took a deep breath and followed him down the dark opening.

The two of them ended up on a service platform. Water was moving below their feet and the only light came from the moon shining through the opening above them.

"The signal is coming from that way." Spidey said and pointed downward the tunnel. He stepped onto a trail supposed to be used by sewer workers for repair and maintenance. "Come on, this way." Jackpot hesitated before she followed him down the dark tunnel.

"Pewieee!" she said after they walked down the trail for a few minutes. "I can't believe this stench."

"Yeah. It's these times I'm really glad I wasn't bitten by a genetically modified sewer rat."

"Or a dung beetle."

They followed the path for a long time, guided by Peter's spider-sense. He stopped as he heard a loud sound and vibration coming from the wall they walked alongside. He put his ear to the wall and listened to the sound.

"Judging by the direction we been walking, I think that's the subway under East river." he said.

"Then we most have been down here for at least half an hour, maybe even forty-five minutes."

"Come, let's not waste any more time."

They continued throught the sewers, turning a corner here and there to get closer and closer to where the tracer's signal was coming from and soon their eyes started to get used to the darkness. They were mostly quiet, but the silence was suddenly broken when Jackpot screamed behind Spider-man's back.

"Aaaaieee!"

"What? What's wrong?"

"I think I saw a moloid!"

Spidey looked at his frightened girlfriend with what he would describe as a 'What?'-look.

"I swear." Jackpot kept on going. "It totally was a moloid."

"Relax, it was probably just a rat."

"That's even worse!"

Spider-man then shushed her down and pointed up. "The signal is coming from up there."

Jackpot sighed in relief over finally getting out of the foul-smelling sewer. Spider-man climbed up the ladder and slowly opened up the lid into a narrow slot. Judging by all the garbage, junked vehicles and broken household apparatus he saw, they had come up at some kind of junk yard. And among all the garbage, their mutated enemy was going through every nook and cranny. Spider-man took his chance, while the thing was bissy searching through the trash he fired a webline that trapped the man-like monster to the ground. The thing was shocked to notice that he couldn't move from the spot.

"End of the line Ugly." Spidey told him when both he and Jackpot crawled up from the manhole.

The freak growled and bend down, slashed the web with his claws and freed himself. He then charged at the two heroes, but this time they were prepared. They both punched him in the face and sent him flying into the side of a rusty van. He quickly got up on his legs and shook his head to remove the dizzyness.

"I hate people who can stay vertical for more then three seconds." Spider-man pointed out.

The superheroes and the monster engaged each other in combat. This time, being more prepared, the two heroes avoided the monster's attacks more easily. The man-like thing was neither fast or good enough to block or dodge the heroes hits, yet he seemed very sturdy and each punch had little effect.

After been punched several times the freaky man tried to ran towards the manhole to run away from the fight again, but this time Spider-man was fast enough to web the hole shot so their enemy couldn't get away.

"You're not going anyway Bright-eye."

The freak turned around again and jumped at Spidey, trying to slash him with his claws, but the young hero was too fast, ducked those sharp nails easily and kicked him in the chest. Jackpot moved in and punched the thing in the face, making him stagger a step back. The monster's head and neck then jerked and a shower of yellow acid sprayed out from his mouth towards Jackpot who jumped back. She managed to avoid the corrosive fluid, even though some tiny drops splashed on her suit and made a few round holes like from cigarette burns. Spider-man jumped over their enemies head, kicking it as he did it, and landed on the other side of him. When the monster turned around, Jackpot took the opportunity to again grab the thing's tail, this time with her left hand while blocking slashing claws with her right. She then pulled in the tail, making the monster fly up in the air, and started to swing the monster in a circle above her head.

"Hope you like the merry-go-round!" Jackpot called out while swinging the freaky guy just like she had with Omega Red last week.

Meanwhile, Spider-man walked up to the scrapped van and ripped off the bumper on it. He tapped the piece of metal's end against the ground and held it in the air like a baseball player holding his bat, waiting for the pitcher to throw the ball.

"Don't hug the ball, honey." he called out to Jackpot who got the point.

She let go of the now dazed monster who flied through the air. Spider-man swung the bumper just like a baseball bat, he hit the flying freak like a batter hitting the ball and the monster flew up high up in the air.

"And the ball is going... going... GOING... GONE!" Spider-man said, like a sports commentator at a game.

"Homerun for the home team!" Jackpot joined in with her fist up in the air in a victory sign. All while Spidey imitated a player grabbing his own crotch and spitting out tobacco.

There was a loud thud as the man-freak crash-landed on top of a water tower and then slided down on the roof. The two heroes were there just a few seconds later to web the now unconscious monster to the roof, making it impossible for him to flee if he would woke up.

"Wow. We sure did a good number on him." Spidey noticed. "How you're doing, honey?"

"My pinky hurts." Jackpot answered.

"Awww."

"Can we go home now?"

"Yeah, maybe it's about time we cut this date short."

"This was a date?"

"A very sad one."

* * *

Thirty minutes later Mary Jane was back at her own house and sneaked in through the window. She was so tired that she just wanted to go to sleep right away. She took off her costume, hid it inside her closet and put on her pajamas. She then lied down in bed and snuggled down real good between the sheets with a smile on her face, glad that she would finally catch some sleep.

She sat up in bed like a gun-shot and smacked herself on the forehead with an open palm.

_"The video. How the hell could I forget the video?"_ her inner voice asked herself.

She got up from bed and pulled out her camcorder from her backpack. She was supposed to edit and send her latest report to Jessica Jones of the school's television network right away. If Jessica didn't had it on her computer by tomorrow, MJ would never gonna hear the end of it.

Mary Jane sat down in front of her desk and turned on her computer. Luckily, Peter had helped her install a editing program on her computer, so that made things a little easier. It took time, however, and MJ's alarm clock showed 4:27 when she was finally done and could sent the edited video to Jessicas e-mail address. Dead tired, she let out a tiny smirk.

_"Ha. I can't believe I pulled that off. Mary Jane Watson, master of the double life-"_

She then collapsed on the keyboard and started to snore out loudly.


	33. Chapter 33

"Mary Jane. Mare Jane, wake up."

MJ was woken up by her mother touching her shoulder. It took the teenager a few seconds to realize that she was still sitting in front of her computer, she had left a small drip of drool on the Enter key.

"Whu-what...? Mom?" MJ mumbled in her drowsiness. "What time is it...?"

"It's eleven AM." her mother answered. "MJ how long were you up last night."

"I- I'm not sure... I-I worked late on my report for the school news and I... I must have fallen asleep."

"Sitting in front of the computer? You must have been awfully tired."

"Yeah... that's for sure."

"Mary Jane, why did you stay up so late anyway? That's not like you at all." Mrs Watson asked, wondering over her daughters strange behavior.

"Um... Listen, Mom, I'd gladly play Twenty Questions with you but not untill after I've eaten some breakfast." she answered, dodging the question.

MJ then got up from the chair and walked out of the bedroom, with her mother muttering "More like lunch." behind her.

While on the stairs the way down MJ rolled up the leg of her pajamas and took a quick peek at the scratch wound she got last night in the fight. The plastic cover she had used to patch up the wound fell to the floor since the spiderwebbing had dissolved hours ago. The wound itself didn't look too bad, already the scab had formed four dark red stripes cross her thigh. She threw the badly improvised bandage in the garbage, rolled down the fabric over her leg and started to make herself a meal.

The largest bowl of cereals this house had ever seen was standing on the kitchen table next to a tall glass of orange juice, a grapefruit and a huge sandwich with everything from cheese to lettuce, mayonnaise, boloney and slices of tomatoes and cucumber on it. MJ felt her mouth water when she looked at the gastronomical challenge before her.

Mary Jane was already half-finished with her food when her mother came down the stairs and entered the kitchen.

"MJ. When was this taken?" she asked and held up something she had been looking at. MJ identified the object as a strip of small photoes, one of those you get from any photo booth. And this one was from when MJ had have her picture taken the other day together with Liz Allen.

"Where did you get that?" MJ asked back when she looked up from her breakfast bowl.

"It was just lying on your table. This is taken recently. You have been spending time with that Liz Allan, haven't you?"

Mrs Watson's eyes narrowed and she placed her hands upon her hips. It's funny, hips have many functions on the human body, such as holding the legs stuck to the torso, however on mothers the main reason seems to be to create a powerful gesture of authority towards their children.

MJ did not enjoy the look she got from her mother, and she did not like the tone she used when she talked about Liz either. Just a few months ago Mrs Watson was glad over the fact that her daughter had a friend like Elizabeth Allan, but ever since rumours about the young Allen girl was a mutant surfaced at school, MJ's mother had started to show a slight dislike of her daughters old best friend.

When MJ was to surprised to be able to answer, Mrs Watson continued with more questions. "You were with the other day, weren't you? When you said you where out with a friend."

"Y-yeah..." MJ stuttered.

"MJ, I do not approve the idea of you hanging around with a mutant terrorist."

"Terrorist...? Mom! The X-Men are not terrorists! Liz is not a terrorist!"

But Mrs Watson didn't bulge. "That may be, but I do not want you spending time with her anyway. God knows what kind of problems she puts you in."

"Oh for gods sake Mom! We were just hanging out. You know, went to the mall and ate at the food court and stuff. God, first you accuse Peter of hitting me and now you think my best friend is some kind of bad guy! What's wrong with you?"

The middle-age woman started to glare at her daughter with angry and stern eyes.

"Mary Jane, I'm getting tired of this whole dancing around." she told, sounding very much like she was giving her daughter a scolding." For the last two weeks you been acting like a whole different person. You're practically never home and when you are you lock yourself in your room, you stay up all night and sleep all day, you show up suddenly with a black eye and you invite boys to stay over."

"Boys? As in plural? What, are you accusing me of cheating on Peter now?"

"MJ, look me in the eyes. Look me in the eyes and be honest with me. Are you doing drugs?"

MJ gave out a small laughter when she heard her mother ask that question.

"I am serious here." her mother continued sternly. "What is it? Is is marijuana?"

"Yeah, that would be something woudn't it? Mary Jane smoking a Mary Jane."

Mrs Watson didn't find it funny. After realizing how serious her mother was, MJ took breather and stopped laughing.

"No Mom. I'm not taking any drugs. I can honestly say that I'm not doing drygs." But in her head, MJ thought _"Although it kinda was a drug that started this whole mess."_

The older woman looked at the younger one, and after a short moment she seemed to soften up.

"Okay, I believe you. But this way you been acting lately must stop right now. From now on, you're not allowed to leave the house."

"Wait... You're grounding me?"

"Yes I am."

"But Mom! I have a work to go to, remember?"

"Okay, then we do it like this; You're only allowed to leave the house to go to work and you are gonna call me when you're stepping off so I know when you're coming home. AND I'm gonna call your boss to make sure you're even there to begin with. Also, you're forbidden to see Peter Parker from now on. I don't want you going over to his house or having him come over here."

MJ felt like she sinked into a giant, dark hole. "You can't do that!" she cried.

"Watch me. There will be plenty of time for you to be with him when school starts again."

"But... but..."

"No 'Buts'. Now you do as I say or I'm gonna have to call Social Service or even the police. End of discussion." And with that, Mrs Watson turned around and walked out of the room.

MJ sank down in the chair, leaned over the kitchen table and moved her hands over her head and through her hair, like she tried to remove some invisible sweat or ease a light headache. She tried to hold in a small sob. This was so unfair, she helped people, she save lifes, and still she gets treated like a bad guy. This would mean that if she continued to do the superhero-thing her mother would call people, and they would start to snoop around and sooner or later they would blow her secret identity. The young girl felt ever worse when thinking about what would happen then, if they would arrest her or something, or what her mother would do. If she reacts like this now, what would she do when she found out that her own daughter runs around in thights and fight people?

MJ stirred in her breakfast bowl with the spoon, she lifted up some of the ceareals, that were now soft and soaked with milk, turned the spoon over and let the cereals drop into the bowl. All while looking at it with a dejected and far from hungry look.

_"Why does God hate superheroes?" _she pondered.

* * *

A police car stopped at a streetcorner and the two officers inside stepped out and gazed out over the neighbourhood. The area was both abandoned and dirty.

"You sure this is it?" one of them asked.

"Pretty sure." the other one anwered. "My guy is pretty reliable."

"Yeah, but I'm still not sure about this, Ed. I mean, shouldn't we at least call for back-up?"

The one named Ed looked at his partner with annoyance. "And leet someone else get credit for arresting this broad? No way. Don't you chicken out on me now Geoff. This could be the dealbreaker for our careers. Come on, at least one of use should be a sergeant by now."

"Yeah, but... this is a possible supervillain we're talking about. I got a kid on the way."

"Please. You saw that warrent, there's now way that little chick could be that big monster. You were there at the thing downtown, you saw that thing."

"Yeah... guess you're right. Okay, let's do this."

The two officers draw their weapons and walked closer towards an old warehouse. They approached the door and kicked it in, they then ran inside the building. The place seemed empty, but their was a light in the end of a long corridor, they followed it and came up to another door. The officer Ed slowly and carefully opened the door and the two looked inside the door. Inside, there was a blond woman wearing a white lab coat with her back against them, holding up and inspecting a test tube filled with a orange liquid.

"Hold it right there lady!" the two officers shouted and moved in through the door with their guns aiming at the woman. "Put your hands in the air and don't move a muscle!"

Lillian Hollister turned slowly and looked at the two police officers. "You got to be kidding." she said with an irritated tone in her voice.

"We said put your hands in the air! Geoff, call the station. We got her now."

"Why bother? We can have fun on our own." Lily said with a grin while her eyes slowly turned yellow.

That day the police station would get a call on the radio from one of their officers, but before the police patrol had any time to reveal their position, they would hear screams and gunshots and then the line went dead silent. Police detective Ed and officer Geoff did not report in after their shift that evening.


	34. Chapter 34

"What do we have here? A new playmate in our little sandbox of crazy."

Agent Carter walked into the observation room, joining several other SHIELD-agents and scientists, and the one they were observing. In the middle of the room, behind a protective force field, handcuffed with a pair of high-tech manacles that were attached to the floor, and his mouth covered by a plastic muzzle, stood Vincent Gonzales. He thrusted from side to side as he tried to free himself and yelled out muffled growls and screams behind the muzzle.

His body had changed since he arrived at The Triskelion. Not only was his body now much more bulkier and muscular, his shoulders, thighs and chest was now covered by thick chitin plates that protected him like large scales.

"All right, Wapner. Who's the freak?" Carter asked one of the scientists.

Doctor Wapner, a thin man with a heavily receding hairline and the head scientist on Gonzales' case, adjusted his glasses.

"Agent Carter," he answered. "meet Vincent Gonzales. I belive you been searching for him, in the Octavius-case you know."

"You're telling me this... _guy _are Doc Ock's flunky?"

"Yeah, we had to do a pretty hardcore dissection of his DNA to figure it out. His genetic makeup are the most scrambled one I've ever seen, he seem to be in a constant state of evolving. Why we was so stupid trying the OZ-drug on himself I'll never understand. It's really creepy, you know. He's converting his gastric juices into a higly corrosive acid, therefor the bib. And you see those plates on him?"

"Yeah?"

"They weren't there last night. They appeared first after we tried to sedate him." He then showed her the clipboard he held in his hands. "Take a look at this, his DNA-code change everytime an alien substance enter his body."

Carter snorted. "So you mean every time he does a line he actually gets stronger?"

"Something like that, yes."

"Lovely. How did you manage to identify him with this piece of crap-DNA?"

"It was tough. But I managed to seperate the damaged OZ-genes from the few normal ones he had, then I ran an ID-check in every file we have access to. Vincent here was at the police academy a few years back, but he was kicked out and arrested for using the drugs they trained the dogs with. Since then he's been in and out of prison for possession of illegal narcotics several times. Last time was at Rykers Island."

"Where Octavius too were doing time. A lot of inmates escaped during that riot." Agent Carter nodded as she remembered what the report on Octavius she been reading said. "We've identified Vinny on our security tapes, and his description match the one of someone who broke into the water purification plant in Queens last month. Probably to pour OZ in the drinking water. Doc Ock most have get to known Vinny while in jail, and when the CIA helped the good doctor out of a life sentence, he most have contacted Gonzales again to use as a back-up plan."

The SHIELD-personel looked at the mutated junkie before them, who still struggled and thrusted wildly around to escape his bonds, cussing behind the muzzle.

"You think we ever gonna get something useful out of him?" Carter asked and crossed her arms.

"I hardly believe so." Dr Wapner answered her. "His brain chemistry seem to be to damaged by all the drugs. The lights are on but there's no one home, if you get what I mean."

"Then get the psychics down hear immediately. Let's see if they can pick up from whatever last of this freak's mind."

Carter then left the room, hearing Gonzales' muffled roars behind her as the doors closed.

* * *

Mary Jane was so proud of herself she could pat herself on the back. She had would a loophole in her mother's new rules. MJ was forbidden to be out of the house except for work, which made her career as a superhero almost impossible, but there was still the time to and back from work, and not to forget her lunch hour. During that time she could easily sneak into her costume and at least spend a little time fighting the few crimes that showed up during that short period. Which was just what she was doing right now.

During her lunch break she'd managed to locate a robbery at a jewelry store in Queens. Three guys in masks pulled over a car up on the sidewalk and rushed inside the store were they smashed open the glass counter with baseball bats and grabbed everything they could to the great shock and surprise of the jewelry clerks. The three thiefs swinged the bats in the air and yelled at the personnel and costumers, making them duck for cover. After filling up a plastic bag with valuable gold ornament, the three robbers quickly tried to run out the way they came before anyone had the chanse to call the police.

The first thief moving through the door however suddenly found himself being pushed back by a strong hand that appeared out of nowhere. The young heroine walked in throught the door and faced the three masked men.

"You know, guys, I'm in a bit of a hurry so how about I just smack you to the ground and you can come up with your own jokes. What do you say?"

Jackpot jumped at the robber she'd just tossed to the floor, she slapped the baseball bat out of his hand and hit him in the face with a well-controlled punch. However, as she knocked one robber out, the other two decided to leave their partner behind and managed to run past Jackpot out in the street and into their getaway-car. Jackpot got up and ran after them just as the vehicle started to speed down the sidewalk, avoiding hitting people in the way by mere inches. Jackpot ran after the car as fast as her legs could carry her, which was pretty fast.

The thiefs in the car had a hard time maneuver their escape vehicle on the crowded street with all the people and other cars in the way and the redheaded hero was quickly gaining on them. They made a quick turn to the right and entered an exit that led them up on the interstate. As the car turned and skidded, Jackpot got the opportunity to jump up in the air and land on the cars hood. When the car got up on the interstate and picked up the speed, she almost slipped off its slippery surface but managed to hang on to the sideway mirror and brace her feets against the car door.

"Nascar try-outs aren't 'til tuesday!" the young hero yelled and punched throught the glass in the drivers car window.

"I'm not going back to the slammer! Especially not because this bitch!" the guy sitting beside the driver yelled out and opened up the glove compartment.

"Jack! What are you doing?" the driver yelled while trying not to slam the car into on of the other cars on the highway. His companion then pulled out a gun from the glovebox and fired it at Jackpot, right next to his partners ear.

Jackpot saw the weapon in time and jumped off the car in time before the gun was fired, but the driver however was severly startled by the loud gunshot right next to his head. He lost control of the vehicle which now moved towards the edge of the highway. The car smashed throught the crash barrier and flied right out into the air.

When Jackpot finally had stopped tumbling across the concrete road she got up on her legs and expected to see the car crashed through the side of a building, instead she saw the car, with the two now quarreling thiefs trapped inside, hanging between a house and a lampost in a large spiderweb. A smile appeared on her lips when she notice a familiar shadow sneak up on a rooftop. She quickly jumped up to the side of the same building and climbed up the wall.

"Hey sexy." she said with seductive voice when she pulled herself up on the roof. "Thanks for the help, how I'm I ever gonna repay... you...?"

Jackpot's eyes grew huge as saucers when the person in front of her turned around and she saw that it wasn't her boyfriend as she expected. This figure was just like Peter slim, not too tall, brown-haired and wearing a spider-themed outfit, but this persons hair was much longer and the colors and pattern on the costume was different. When the stranger turned around MJ noticed that the person was clearly a girl of her own age and she had a large white spider on her dark red suit. Two large white bug-shaped eyes looked back at MJ from behind a mane of brown hair.

"YOU!" both the girls said to each other in unison.

"I been wanting to talk to you for some time, you dirty homewrecker!" Spider-woman said towards Jackpot, and MJ was surprised by the angry tone in her voice. "You stay the hell away from him or you'll have to deal with me!"

"Wha-what are you talking about?"

Spider-woman pointed a threatening index finger towards Mary Jane. "Don't act like you don't know. Spider-man already have a girlfriend and I'm not gonna let you move in and brake them apart like some skank. They've been through too much allready."

The angry girl moved closer to MJ who suddenly felt the urge to move. Jackpot staggered a few steps back, then jumped over the gap between the building they were standing on and the next one, only to have Spider-woman follow her.

"Listen, there's been a missunderstanding here. It's not like you think." Jackpot called back while trying to keep her distance but not make it look like she was running away.

"Don't try with any excuses on me, you heartbreaking hussie!" Spider-woman yelled behind MJ. "Come back here you slut!"

_"Great." _MJ thought. _"Now my boyfriend's sister (or whatever she's supposed to be) are calling me names. Doesn't she recognize me? My god, is she really that much like Pete?"_

When Jackpot landed on her feets on a roof she felt something tugging her by her foot. She looked down and saw that her foot was covered in webbing, trapping her on the spot. She tried to rip off the web, but before she had the time to escape Spider-woman landed right in front of her.

"L-look. I can explain this." Jackpot said trying to calm the angry heroine down.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't punch you right in the face, you skank!"

_"Oh boy... Well, here goes nothing."_

MJ pulled down the goggles covering her eyes and revealed her face. Spider-woman got so surprised from the revelation that she took a step back in shock.

"Mary Jane...? You- you- you are-?"

"Yeah. Ta-daa."

* * *

The large crane lifted the police vehicle up from the dark water and placed it on the harbor pier. The filthy contents of the East river spilled out on the ground and soaked the shoes on several police officers, some of them started cussing as their socks became wet. Captain Frank Quaid stepped closer to the trashed police car and looked inside the coupé, there in the driver seat and the seat next to it there were two dead police men, severly beaten and their heads hanging on to their bodies in a weird angle.

"Damn it. Please tell me you got the ID on these guys, Carlie."

"I'm afraid I have, Captain." the young but talented forensic answered. "Their name is detective Ed McGuinness and officer Geoff Johns. Neither of them reported in last night."

"Damn it." Quaid went again. "I know these guys. Geoff was gonna be a father in two months. What killed them?"

"I can't tell for sure until after the autopsy, but it seems like they were severly beaten and then their necks were snapped by someone... or _something_ ...with great strenght."

"Great strenght? Like _superhuman_ strenght?"

"Seems like that, yes."

The captain turned away from the vehicle and wiped a pearl of sweat from his forehead. "McGuinness always had a flare of not playing by the book, it was only a matter of time before he would put himself in trouble. But that it would end like this..." He paused before he continued, trying to keep his head cool. "The guys down at the station said that he was going to see a guy about something. It's a possibility that Ed and Geoff was trying to reel in the Hollister-case all by themself, foolishly. They were good guys, just... a little rash."

"I think we can salvage the log on the GPS-system in the car and see where they were before they were killed." Carlie pointed out.

"Good. You do that while I go search for Ed's contact. I have a feeling in my guts that we're getting really close on this one."

* * *

"There we go." MJ said when handing over Jessica's cup of coffee. "I presumes you like espresso."

"Yes, but how did you...?"

"It's Peter's favorite. I figured that you would have simular taste."

"Aha."

"Cinnamon rolls?"

MJ showed Jessica a box with the pair of pastries she bought along with the beverages, but the feamle clone politely said "Thanks but no thanks. I'm not hungry."

"Okay, more for me then."

Mary Jane sat down on the roof edge next to Jessica Drew. There was a long, awkward, quiet moment before MJ finally broke the silence.

"So... how's the life as a girl doing it for you?" she asked with a nervous smile.

Jessica looked up from her mug and at MJ. "Wow. That's a terrible icebreaker."

"I know, but give me a break, this is the first time we actually meet each other face to face. I don't really know what to say."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I have all these memories of you and me, or rather of you and Peter, and there not even my own. Like... our first kiss. Or yours and Peters first kiss. And now when I see you again... It's a little mind-stunning."

"Uh-huh." MJ nodded and took a bite from the cinnamon bun. "Yeah, I totally get that. Peter told me about how you guys saved me that time, but I still had a hard time getting a hang on it. I mean, clones, deranged clones, gender-changed clones and all that are more then enough to make your brain melt. I have to ask you, and stop me if I'm going over the line here, are you still... you know, having feeling for me? Like Peter?"

The brunette heroine blushed a little bit. "Oh, um, well, I'm pretty sure I have SOME feeling for you, but not in that way. I still care for you, but I'm pretty sure that I'm into guys."

MJ nodded. "Okay. But it's a bit of a shame, really. It would been fun to make Peter think I was going out with his twin sister."

Both the girls giggled at the thought of how Peter would had reacted to that situation. An image of his head exploding was one of many that came to their minds.

"Well, maybe cousin is a better choice of words. But frankly I don't know what to call it." Jessica mentioned after sipping some coffee from her mug.

"So, when we're on the subject; Is there someone special in your life?"

"No, no I'm far to bissy to get my life on tracks to start dating. But I envy you and Peter who have each other to rely on. Hopefully I'll have that too someday."

"Honestly, I have to say that you're so much like him." MJ said. "He didn't recognized me in this costume either."

"Oh man." Jessica groaned. "How could I not see that? I mean, your hair, your voice."

"It's probably because you inherit Peter's gullibility. Or you were thrown off by these girls." MJ joked and adjusted the garment over her bustline.

"Yeah that might've been it." Jessice said ironicly while taking a quick look at MJ's low neckline. "Let me take a guess and say that it was OZ that made all this. The superpower-thing I mean."

"Correct. And that's really smart of you to figure it out by yourself, I had to get tested and probed to get to know that. But the things that really bugs me is that every one of my friends guess who I am right at once. No, every one but the people I think deserves to know. I revealed myself to Peter by accident and my responsibilites is putting a wedge between me and my mum."

"Welcome to the Matrix, Red. But at least you have a mum." Jessica said and pouted. "I was born from a artificial womb."

"Wow. Such a abysmal construction of sexless reproduction wouldn't even been considered by Disney." MJ said, trying to cheer Jessica up.

The young spider-girl gave out a small laughter, she was finally starting to feel less awkward by this conversation. "Yeah, but at least they don't have an army of killer-robots."

"That we know of." MJ then took a look at her wristwatch. "Ah crap." she said. "I have to go back to work before my boss notice I'm late."

"But I was just about to start teasing you about the disco pants." Jessica joked in a mock-whining voice.

"Save that for next time." MJ answered with a smile and got up on her legs. "It was great meeting you at last, Jessica. We gotta do this again sometime."

"Yeah. Why not?"

When Jessica stood up, MJ wraped her arms around her and gave Jessica a hug which made the brown-haired girl blush. But after a few seconds of just feeling awkward she warmed up and returned the hug.

"Oh, by the way. Thanks for watching my back with the cheating thing." MJ said when they broke apart.

"No problems. And, um, I'm sorry that I called you a dirty homewrecker." Jessica apologized.

"And a heartbreaking hussie." MJ added.

"Yeah that too."

"And a slut."

"Okay okay! I'm sorry about all that."

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad I got to meet my sister-in-law. Or whatever it is. If you're ever swinging past the old block, don't hesitate to stop by. We'll finish the coffee and I'll show you how to shave your legs or something."

Jessica made another small laugh. "Thanks but I think I got the lady hygiene under control by now."

The two teen heroines smiled at each other and then made their farewell before putting on their masks and leaping away, each in their own direction. While moving over the rooftops towards the mall, Mary Jane came to think;

"Heh, what do you know. Dear diary; Today something happen'd to me that haven't happen in a long time. I made a new friend."

A wide smile appeared over her mouth as she jumped over the roofs.


	35. Chapter 35

Mrs Watson stepped out of her bathroom, wearing her night dress and ready to go to bed. As she passed her daughters room, she peeked in through the door and saw how MJ was all tucked in under her bedsheets. Feeling secured over knowing where her teenage daughter was, Mrs Watson closed the door and went to lie down in her own bed.

Mary Jane opened her eyes and throwed off the blanket. Under it she was actually not wearing her pyjamas or any other kind of night out-fit, but her suit, part from the boots and the mask. She sneaked out the hallway and made sure that her mother had gone to sleep. Like many other hard-working parents, Mrs Watson had no problems falling asleep as soon as she went to bed. After checking up on mom, MJ sneaked back into her room and put on her mask and boots. Fully dressed, she took a quick on herself in the full-lenght mirror on hanging her wall. There was something about her suit that still gave her a gnawing feeling in the back of her head.

_"There's still something missing. A finishing touch or something. But what?"_ she thought as she inspected herself. _"Like... a cape? No. Capes are for people who fly, and if you have one and don't, you're a sucker."_

She left her reflection and open her bedroom window, she then sneaked out the window as quietly as she could. The young girl jumped down to the ground and moved over the lawn in cover of the dark. Soon she reached the corner of a street where she was suppose to wait.

After just a minute a low clang-like noice was heard above her head, and up on the lamppost the red and blue figure of Spider-man had just landed.

"Hey." he said in a quiet voice.

"Hey." MJ answered, she too under her breath.

"You ready?"

"I guess so. I just feel like total scum for sneaking out on my mom like that."

"Can't be helped. And this was your idea, remember?" Peter said and held out his hand.

"Yeah, I know." MJ said back. She grabbed on to Peter's hand and Peter lifted her up so she could climb up on his back.

"We're just gonna be out for an hour or two, we check things out and then we can sneak right back home." Peter told MJ. "And one more thing; Why are we whispering?"

"You started it." MJ answered, equally surprised.

* * *

A man wearing a ski mask came flying out a already broken window and landed on his face. When he tried to get up on his feets he then noticed that his head was glued to the ground by a large amount of webbing.

"They don't make robbers like they used to." said Spider-man as he exit the broken-in liquor store, carrying two webbed-up criminals under each of his arms. Close behind him, Jackpot followed dragging another unconscious robber.

"You been doing this for too long, sweetie. You're starting to sound like an old man."

"You wait till you get to my age, then you'll see."

"You're only two months older then me."

"But it feels like three. Just hold a second and I'll web this up so no one else gets any ideas."

Spidey hanged up all the robbers, that weren't already stuck to the pavement, to a lamppost and then put a large cover of web over the smashed-in window so anyone else couldn't brake into the store before the police got there. It only took the two superheroes a few seconds after that to disappear completely out of sight.

"Turn left here. We haven't been there yet." MJ spoke into Peters ear when they webswinged down the street.

"Would you please let me do the driving?" Pete joked. "I hate backseat-swingers."

"Look over there."

The teenagers landed outside a small bank office were the large door was suspiciously open and low sounds could be heard from inside. They sneaked in through the door, inside there wasn't a single light on, making the room dark. However, on the floor there was a small mechanic device with a single small, blinking, red light on, spreading an uncanny atmosphere through the large space.

"Is that- is that a bomb?" Jackpot whispered to Spider-man.

"I... I don't think so." he responded. He then looked up on the wall and noticed the highly advanced and almost invisible electronics. "I think it's knocking out the alarm systems."

MJ then pulled the fabric on Peters arm and pointed further into the room, pointing out a bank vault that stood wide open. The two teens sneaked closer to the vault, hearing sound that grew louder and louder the closer they got.

They carefully looked inside the vault, and deep inside, stood the grotesque vision of Menace, emptying one safe-deposit box after the other. The grey monster greedily grabbed giant hands full of dollar bills, jewelry and other valuables and stuffed them down into a large bag with a sadistic grin on it's face.

Spider-man quickly pulled Jackpot into cover behind the wall before the monster discovered them. "I'm getting really tired of that thing." he said angry under his breath. "We gotta take that guy down once and for all before... MJ... are you okay?"

Mary Jane had put her hand over her mouth and she had a stunned expression on her face. She had just remembered something that she knew she shouldn't had forgotten in the first place.

"Peter... I almost forgot... That thing, last time I fought him, he talked about OZ. He mentioned Octavius and he- he know were my powers comes from." she told Pete in a low voice.

"What? How can you just forgot something like that?"

"Well I was a little bissy trying to avoid being killed!"

Peter shushed MJ down and looked behind the corner, luckily Menace hadn't heard them.

"If that is true, then we gotta found out more about this." Peter told MJ. "I say that instead of beating him up we put a tracer on him and follow him to his secret hide-out."

"Follow him?"

"Yeah, before he start a fight and get our asses kicked. Remember, there's more then one way to stuff a turkey."

MJ then gave out a snort as she tried to not laugh at her boyfriends little remark.

"What...? Oh MJ, you dirty girl."

"Sorry... But how do you know he even got a secret hide-out?" MJ asked, still whispering.

"Well, um... He's a supervillain. They always have secret hide-outs. Now, if you can keep him distracted I'll place the tracer."

"One distraction coming right up." By that, MJ stepped out from behind the wall into clear view for Menace to see. "Hey Buttface! Guess who's back!"

"YOU AGAIN?" the monster roared out in surprise upon seeing the heroine.

Peter smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand, then slowly wiped his hand down over his face in irritation.

"Man this hurts already..." he said quite annoyed.


	36. Chapter 36

Convict Octavius was rereading a book on physics late at night. The lack of exercise he had in his cell made him sleep much less, and when you're imprisoned like he was, reading was one of the few things that made the time go by. There was then a clang on the plastic bars of his celldoor as one of the guards banged his nightstick against it to get the doctor's attention.

"Hey! Doc Ock! Guess what happen'd."

"You finally realized that your wife is having an affair with your best friend?" Octavius answered without looking up from his book.

"No- HEY! SHUT UP! Listen, the people upstairs nabbed your little freaky rat-friend Vinny last night."

Hearing this, Octavius looked up and closed his book. "Did they?" he said without showing any reaction in his voice.

"Oh yeah, they locked him up and sent those mindreaders on him." the guards mocked. "They know all about your evil little schemes, and right now the're sending out a team to bust your plan right in your face. It wont take long now before they throw you in a much nicer cell, ya little scum. There will be no books, no plastic TV and none of this fancy food for you no more. I'm sure gonna miss looking at your ugly mug all day long, doc."

The guard left Octavius in his cell, giving out a croaking laugh as he walked down the hallway. Dr Octopus, however, was much more pleased with the situation then he showed.

_"Well, if Gonzales are in the building I might just as well see if he is free for a little talk."_ he thought and then stood up straight on the floor of his cell. He took off his plastic glasses and cleaned the glass on his orange prison uniform, then he held out his arms straight out from his sides. _"I have been waiting my time for long enough now. It's time I show them the true extent of my power!"_

Hundreds of feets from there, on the bottom of the Upper New York Bay, several metalic objects began to stir up from the mud. Empty cans, rusty bicycles, nails, boat parts and everything possible slowly moved together and merged into one single lump of scrap, two feets wide and two feets high. The piece of combined metal slowly crawled along the bottom, moving closer towards the Triskelion, followed by hundreds of other objects identical to itself.

* * *

A hole appeared in the wall and out came Spider-man flying. He flew through the air and crashed into a car, scaring the life out of a small group of people that was on their way to a nightclub. The car got a huge dent the shape of a person in its side after Spidey slide off it and landed on the ground.

"Look mom, I'm roadkill. Ha ha ha..." he groaned under his breath, lying flat on the street.

"Peter! Are you okay?" Jackpot asked when she appeared out of the hole in the wall. By now the group of nightclub visitors had already run far away.

"I'm the prettiest girl at the Moonfair ball..." he answered her.

"I- I can't tell if you're being delirious or if you're just making jokes."

The teenage boy crawled up on his feets and rubbed the spot where his head had taken a blow.

"No... I'm fine, I'm fine... I just lost my bearings for a second. What was that all that? Did you forgot everything I told you about jumping in heads first?"

"I'm sorry, it was the only thing that came up in my head."

"I don't know if you're being careless or just crazy."

Then there was a angry grunt coming from inside the bank building followed by the loud noice of metal being ripped apart. Inside, Menace had tored off the bankvaults door and now threw it through the wall at the two young heroes. Bricks and concrete spread all over the street as the metal object came flying through the air like a rocket.

"Get down!" Spidey yelled and pushed Jackpot to the side before he himself jumped out of the way of the flying door. The vault door hit the car Spider-man had just crashed into and turned it flat like a pancake.

"WHY WON'T YOU TWO LITTLE PESTS LEAVE ME ALONE?" Menace shouted at the teenagers as the grey monster came running out the now larger hole in the wall.

"If we did that we wouldn't be earning our superhero-paychecks, would we?" Spider-man cracked.

"Sweety, we don't get paid for this." Jackpot pointed out.

"Oh yeah, right... damn."

Spider-man sent a spray of web-globs at the giant monster while Jackpot charged at him. Menace blocked all the webbing with his arms, and when Jackpot came running towards him he punched her right in the stomach, causing her to loose her breath. Menace then grabbed a hold of the young reheads suit, throw her down into the ground and then threw her right up in the air. THe hits made MJ see stars, but when she regained her focus she noticed that she was high up above the roof tops.

_"Oh come on, gravity. You used to be cool."_ her nervous mind joked, because it was either that or panic. _"But okay, I forgive you if you look the other way when I turn forty."_

As she then stopped going up and slowly started to descend, she however started to wonder how the hell she was gonna make it to the age of forty. But to her great relief, she saw that her dear boyfriend was already one step ahead of her. Spider-man had spun a large cobweb over the street, making it possible for her to land unharmed, although a bit shaken.

Down on the ground, Spidey had engaged their scaly opponent. Right now he was dodging one giant blow after another and just avoided to get hit again like just a moment ago, which had sent him through the wall. He punched a few hits on Menaces head, knowing that the blow would do little damage but hoping that it would distract the monster from what he was about to do.

"Say, have you gotten uglier since last time? I'm just saying, I think, somewhere, there's a painting of you getting prettier and prettier."

He jumped over Menace, performing an acrobatic aerial cartwheel above the monsters head. He quickly pulled out one of his tracers from his pocket and with a quick, almost invisible, motion he placed the tiny tracer in the monsters mane of wild, red hair.

_"Tag, your it."_ he thought contentedly.

He then landed on the ground, and Menace manage to hit him in the back with his foot and kicked him down to the ground. Menace was just about to slam on Spider-man with both fists when a garbage lid came flying and hit him in the face. Jackpot, now back with her feets on earth, had thrown the projectile like a frisbee, hoping to get the monsters attention.

Menace roared out, mad with anger, turned around and grabbed a hold of a large SUV-vehicle that stood parked next to them, lifted the giant car over his head and throw it up in the air. The vehicle flew in a arch and then started falling down at Jackpot. The heroines eyes grew huge and wide as dinner plates with fright as 5000 pounds of automobile was coming down upon her. He raised up her arms in the air and catched the vehicle by the front hood.

"Oh why couldn't it be a prius...?" she complained as her body strained under the car.

The weight of the car was not as much a problem as the sheer mass and size of it. Jackpot wobbled as she tried to balance the SUV over her head and keep it from falling down on something.

"Naahhh! Can someone give me a hand over here?" she shouted.

"Hang on, I got it!" Spider-man called back. He ran up towards Jackpot and catched the back of the vehicle just as MJ lost control of the angle of its gradient, gravity took a hold of it and the car started falling down in front of her.

As they now both held on to the vehicle and slowly started to put it down safe, they heard a 'woosh'-sound above their heads as Menace used the distraction to escape the fight.

"Aaaaand he's gone." Spidey told after the car was down on the street again, looking over his shoulder to see Menace leaping out of sight.

"Agh! What kind of prick drives an SUV in the middle of Manhattan?" Jackpot cursed. "I mean, the parking alone is a bitch!"

"Forget about that. Come on, he's heading south."

"Alright, just hold on." MJ said and picked up a brick from the ground and threw it through the hole in the bank wall. The brick hit the device on the floor and smashed it, after which the banks alarm started to scream out loudly. Now the police would be there any minute.

And by that Spider-man took Jackpot by the hand and then swinged after the fleeing monster, ready to once and for all find out who this mysterius villain really was and maybe find out how this puzzle were all put together.


	37. Chapter 37

When they passed the giant road sign indicating what borough they were entering, Spider-man's otherwise so adventurous mood dropped like an anvil.

"Brooklyn. Of course it had to be Brooklyn."

"What's wrong with Brooklyn?" Jackpot asked.

"What's NOT wrong with Brooklyn?" he asked her back.

The two heroes followed the signal from the tracer to a badly tended neighbourhood, and soon they landed on a rooftop, looking down on a apparently abandoned warehouse.

"New york never seem to run out of those." Spidey joked.

"Where did Menace go?" Jackpot asked, looking around.

"Wait." Spider-man said and pulled her back. Down on the ground, coming out of the building, Menace opened the large door and locked it behind him. He then leaped away without noticing the two young heroes hiding on the roof.

"Okay," Spidey said. "let's get down there and check it out."

They jumped down to ground level and inspected the door, it was locked with a large and heavy padlock.

"Rip it off." MJ urged.

"Wait." Peter told her. "If he comes back and find a broken lock it might ruin our surprise. We better find a smarter way to get inside."

The two teens looked around for a moment, searching for an alternative entrance, and soon Peter came across something.

"We'll crawl in through that vent."

Mary Jane looked up at the ventilation opening that Peter had found. It was narrow, but probably large enough for a grown person to squeeze his head through.

"You're telling me we gotta squeeze ourself through that thing?"

"Yeah."

"Are you even sure you can get your head in there?"

Spidey looked at Jackpot. "What do you mean with my head?"

"Well... You do have kind of a big head on a skinny body. You're basically shaped like a lollipop."

Spider-man looked at Jackpot in silence for a long moment before he went; "Let's just get this over with." and then climbed up the wall, ripped open the vent and started to crawl in inside the ventilation shaft.

Jackpot shook her head as she saw her boyfriends legs and feet disappear into the wall.

"This job is getting less and less glamorous by the day." she said before she herself lifted herself up on the wall and squeezed herself into the dark opening.

However, as the two heroes made their way into the building, a pair of eyes were watching them from the other side of the street. The man in disguise reached into his pocket and pulled out a small handheld transceiver in which he spoke into.

"Call Captain Quaid, things are starting to heat up down here."

* * *

It was the night duty at the Triskelion security room. Several SHIELD-agents were sitting in front of hundreds of monitors with their cups of coffee and wished they were rather somewhere else.

"Hey Sergeant. Can you come over here for a moment, sir?" one of the agents on duty suddenly called out in the middle of the great boredom.

"What is it agent?" the SHIELD officer asked while sipping coffee from his mug.

"I'm picking up something on the motion detectors. But... I can't make out what it is. It's not giving off any heat signals."

The higher grade agent looked at the monitor in front of him with confusion equally that of his subordinate. "What the hell...? Give me visual on that thing!"

The security agent tapped a few buttons on the keyboard in front of him and the monitor change into a black and white picture. Before the agents eyes a picture of a strange metal object appeared, the alien object looked like it was combined by several pieces of junk. Then suddenly the object reached out an arm towards the camera and then the picture changed into static.

"Sergeant!" another agent called out. "I'm picking up the same thing in sector twelve, five and twenty-eight."

"In sector thirty, ten, eleven, and forty-one too!" one more agent yelled.

"Sector one to nine and twenty-seven!"

"Sector forty and... My god, there's hundreds of them..."

All the agents stared at the wall in horror as all the monitors before them turned into static noise. The superior officer yelled out to his subordinate agents;

"Get me Director Danvers on the line! We're under attack!"

* * *

Spidey broke off a broken fan that was in the way and called out to Jackpot that was right behind him. The echo in the ventilation shaft caused his words to linger around them.

"How you doing back there, sweety?"

"Oh I'm not complaining." she called back sarcasticly. "I've only swallowed a mouthful of dust, all I can see are the soles of your feet and I now have the interesting knowledge of what it feels like to be toothpaste. By the way, you stepped in gum."

"My, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Hold on, we're almost out."

Peter slammed the vent hatch in front of him open with his fist and wormed himself out and down to the floor. MJ followed him shortly after.

"See, that wasn't so hard." he said after standing up om his legs and brushing of some dust from his suit. "You know, this job require a lot of sneaking for people wearing such colorful outfits." He then turned around and noticed that MJ was still trying to squeeze herself out of the air duct, having stopped when she was halfway through. From the hips and down she was still inside the wall.

"What are you waiting for?" Peter asked her.

"I'm stuck!" she whined.

"What?"

"I'm stuck. My butt is stuck." she went again.

Peter had to cover his mouth to stop himself from starting to laugh. "Really...?"

"It's not funny!" MJ snapped at him. "Help me out of here."

Peter gave out a sigh as he took MJ by the hands. "There's never a batch of chicken grease lying around when you really need one. Okay, clench!" he told her and then pulled with all his strenght. After some effort, Mary Jane's lower rear finally got free from the too small opening in the wall and she came flying out the air duct and into Peter's arms.

"Hello." he said to her, hiding a amused smile behind the mask.

"That was so embarrassing." Mary Jane grumbled after coughing out a smaller dust ball.

"And to think, you complained about the size of my head. Well Red, your butt is bigger then my head."

"Please. Can we leave my butt alone for the moment?"

"But it's such a nice butt."

Jackpot slapped her joking boyfriend over the arm and pointed out into the room to get his attention elsewhere. It was then he noticed what they had crawled into.

The room was large and with a high ceiling, with several pipes moving along the walls. The space was mostly empty, except one corner of the room where someone had placed several tables, on which many electronic devices were placed, accomplished by vails, jars, bunsen burners, large vats filled with various chemicals and scratch papers in unsorted piles. The only light came from a single, dim lightbulb and the blue mechanical light from the equipment on the tables. The whole place reminded of a unconducted crime lab.

"Wow this place is sooo creepy." Jackpot said. "My womans intuition are tingling."

"That wasn't funny."

"What is all this?" she asked as the two of them stepped closer to investigate.

"Looks like a chemistry lab to me." Spider-man answered while inspecting a laboratory centrifuge standing on a table.

"This must be where they made the OZ."

"Yeah, but where's..." He stopped talking when he saw a large refrigerator standing against the wall. It's door was transparent, and inside there washundreds of glass jar filled with an orange liquid.

Jackpot walked up next to Spider-man to look at what he was looking at. They stared at it with tense feeling in the air.

"Is that...?" Jackpot asked.

"Yep," Spidey answered without showing any emotion in his voice. "that's the whole reason our lifes are so damn miserable."

Jackpot stepped a little closer and opened up the fridge. When the door was wide open and a slightly cold breeze from the fridge washed over her, she picked up one jar with the serum and inspected it. She had a hard time imagine that she had this strange ooze-like thing inside her body, it was even harder to understand that someone would actually kill for something like this.

"Okay, put that down." Spidey told her. "We need to get out of here and call someone."

MJ put the jar down and closed the refrigerator door. "I suppose you don't have a direct number to SHIELD, do you?"

"No, but we got Johnny's number and... uhm... heh, cold in here honey?" Spider-man asked as the redhead turned around to face him.

"It's a little bit chilly, yeah. Why?"

"Well, um, heh, 'cause right now you kinda look like you're smuggling gumdrops." he told her with a small snigger.

MJ looked down at her suit and then noticed that the cold had have a visual effect on her anatomy. Her cheeks blushed beet red and she quickly wrapped her arms around her breast.

"Oh man. First my ass and now this. What is it with me? Why does my body always have to be the butt of all jokes?" she whined while rubbing the heat back into her torso.

"How ironic that you would use the term 'butt'." Peter said, still sniggering. "Now put those away, girl, before you poke someones eyes out."

"There wouldn't be a risk for that if you took your eyeballs out of my cleavage once in a while." MJ cracked back.

"Never!" Peter stated firmly.

MJ gave out a sigh. "You think this is hilarious, don't you?"

"Maybe."

"Could you remind me again why I put up with your jokes?"

"Because you love me?"

"Yeah, but that's not the reason."

"Okay, maybe it's because you're a little crazy?"

"Girls don't get crazy. We get hormonal."

"Ah, the ever returning excuse."

Mary Jane just shook her head at Peter and walked pass him. She stuck her arm back into the same air vent she just recently had problem squeezing herself out of and pulled out her tiny backpack. She had been forced to worm herself out of the shoulder strap while inside the shaft, otherwise she would have been stuck inside it. She opened her backpack and pulled out her cellphone. She then dialed the number to Johnny Storm.

"Hope Johnny's not asleep." MJ said as the call connected pass several of the Baxter buildings security systems.

"He's not." Peter answered, knowing that The Human Torch never go to bed until after 2 AM. And rarely alone.

After the tone had ringed for a few times, Johhny finally picked up his phone.

"Johnny, it's MJ." Jackpot spoke into her phone. "Listen, we need your help, we tracked down Menace and we're in his hide-out right now. You think you can wake up the others and get over here?"

As MJ talked with their friend over the phone, Peter continued to look over the place, checking out all the equipment in the room.

_"This is pretty highly-advanced stuff, they must've cost a fortune on the black market."_ he thought. _"But what's he planning on doing with all this OZ? I don't see-"_

He stopped in his thoughts as a familiar tingling returned to the back of his head, and it was getting larger and larger. He quickly ran up to MJ and snatched the cellphone out of her hands just as she was giving Johnny directions to their position.

"If you head south from the Brooklyn bridge and- HEY!"

"He's coming back! Find somewhere to hide! NOW!"

MJ turned off her phone as fast as she could and the two young heroes dove in behind a small pyramid of empty boxes and crates. They cowered behind the crates and made themself as invisible as they could as they heard the sound of a heavy lock being unlocked and the heavy door slowly opening with a long creak. The moonlight cast a long eery shadow of the large monster over room.


	38. Chapter 38

Octavius was staring as spellbound into the wall before him. In the distance the sound of the alarm and guns being fired was heard. After a moment the wall suddenly burst open and a large hole was made in front of the doctor, bricks and plastic flew across the cell and the plastic television set hanging on the wall fell to the floor. Out from the opening came seven metal objects like amoebas crawling out of a wound.

"Ah, there you are. I was getting rather worried." Octavius said with a smile.

The seven objects started to circle around Octavius in his cell like a flock of birds.

"No, this won't do. Not at all. Let's go for something a little more classic."

The metal jumped at Octavius and wrapped themself around his body, taking a much more apparent shape. At the same moment two security guards came running up to the bars of Octavius cell.

"My god... Shoot him!" one of the guards shouted, both of them aiming their stun guns at Octavius, but it was already too late.

Two long metalic arms reached out between the plastic bars, took a strong grip of the guards throats and snapped their necks with a cracking sound. After dropping the bodies to the floor, like two long snakes backing up, the tentacles slowly returned back into the cell and joined their two sisters. The four tentacles grabbed the walls around them and lifted their master up on his legs.

"Yes. This is much better." the evil doctor said with a content smile. "Not as distinguished as your older sisters, but this is more then enough."

The four metal arms reminded of a group of large snakes made from metal junk, they stuck out from their masters back and reached a lenght of nearly twenty feet each. Now they lowered themself around Octavius like a pack of obediant dogs and the evil mastermind stepped closer to the bars of his cell.

"Come now children. We have so much to do and so little time."

And the next second his tentacles ripped the bars apart with the same ease as a grown man ripping apart a piece of paper. Doctor Octoups was once again free.

* * *

Menace stepped inside his hiding place and threw a large money-filled bag in the corner. He walked right pass Jackpot's and Spider-man's hiding-place, his feet making heavy thumps by each step.

As the giant monster passed them, Jackpot gave out a small gasp and nudged Spidey in the ribs. She pointed right at the wall on the other side of the room. Her backpack were still lying on the floor right under the open vent, and Menace were standing between them and it.

Quietly, Spider-man took aim with his right hand and, when Menace was looking the other way, he shot out a webline right behind the villains back. A 'Thwip' was heard from Spider-man's webshooter and Menace stopped. Spidey hit the backpack and pulled it towards him as fast as he could and Jackpot stood up, catched it and dived back down just before Menace turned around. The grey monster scanned the room with his eyes for a moment but saw nothing that could have made the sound. He turned around with a irritated snort and mumbled "Stupid rats."

The two teen heroes felt an incredible relief when Menace turned back around. They had been to scared to even breathe, yet along move in their little hide-out. They peeked up from behind the crates and observed what the bare-chested monster was doing. They saw him walk around and inspect the equipment on the tables, and then standing completly still. And what happen'd next came as a huge surprise to them.

Menace's arms suddenly started to twitch and he got down on one knee. And before the two hero's eyes, he started to shrink and change color. His wild hair turned from blood red to blonde, the horns disappeared into his head and his giant swollen muscles shrinked down into a much more slimmer size. The skin of the creature changed from grey and scaly to tanned and silk smooth, and with a grunt of fatigue, stood up.

Instead of the masculine looking, intimidating grey monster it was a few seconds ago, stood there now a blonde and attractive young woman wearing nothing but a pair of worn-out trousers that were a few sizes too big.

Spider-man dropped his jaw in shock, and Jackpot was equally surprised.

"He's a SHE?" she whispered, and after starring for a few seconds in shock, she came to realize that they were looking at a topless woman. So she quickly covered Peter's eyes with her hand.

The blonde woman took down a lab coat from a hatpeg which she put on (after which MJ could safely take her hand off Peter's face), and then she stepped up to a laptop that laid on the table in front of her. She turned the computer on, and even if Spider-man and Jackpot could not see the laptop poperly, they could hear.

"Mister Declun, how nice of you to call." the woman said to the portable computer. "I hope that I didn't let you wait for too long."

"Not at all Doctor Hollister." a voice said from the computers speaker. Spider-man and Jackpot was listening very carefully what was said in the conversation.

"I am guessing that you're not taking the risk by contacting me just to have a nice chat." the woman told.

"No, actually I'm here on behalf of the board. They're getting anxious that you won't hold your deal of the bargain."

"Peh, that doesn't surprise me much. You tell the fat cats at Roxxon that I will have a functional formula on their table by monday morning."

Hearing the name Roxxon made Peter clench his fist and grinded his teeth in anger. Far to many problems in his life had been caused by that company.

"Then I trust that everything is going as planned?" the man named Declun asked. "You had no problems finding a willing test subject?"

Dr Hollister chuckled to herself. "No problems at all. In fact, finding a test subject was quite easy."

"Yes, please, spare me the details. The less I know, the better. But I have to say, the things you allready asked for were quite strange. I can't see what you needed all that adamatium for."

"As you said yourself, Mister Declun. The less you know, the better."

"Very well then. Just remember, we are risking a lot on this project. Considering everything our company allready been through, I don't think we can afford another setback. Neither can you, for that matter. If you fail at this, your career is over."

"Watch your tone with me, Declun!" Hollister snapped. "I am not just one of those simple drones on your paycheck anymore. I am practically giving you and Roxxon the chance to take the lead in a future that we know are allready happening right now. You can either take my offer and give me the respect I deserve, or you can all go down with your burning ship to the bottom."

There was no sound coming from the man on the screen for a short period of time, then he said "Just make sure Osborn's formula can't be traced back to him, and bring it to us by monday. Goodbye, Doctor Hollister." Then the screen turned black.

She turned off the computer, mumbling "Idiot. And the axe, I got to take that axe back." to herself and then turned around, facing the table with all the unsorted papers that she started going through. As she did, she started to move her hand over her hair to sort out the mess it was in after her transformation. Suddenly she stopped and pulled out something she had found in her curls.

The thing was tiny, like a fingernail, and reminded of a microschip. She looked at it for a moment, trying to figure out what it really was. Not understanding what the small object was, she placed it between her fingers and broke it.

Spider-man yelled out so loud that he scared the hell out of Jackpot, making her scream out too. The feeling in his head when the tracer was broken apart felt like someone stabbing his brain with a knife. When he screamed, he lost his balance and fell over the stacked pile of crates that they were hiding behind. The pyramid fell apart and Spidey came tumbling out between them.

The blonde woman turned around and stared at the two heroes acroos the room in great shock. "NO! YOU TWO ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"

Spider-man, still lying on the floor, looked up at at the woman and shot out a large amount of webbing from his arm, gluing her to the wall.

"Man does my head rings." he complained as he stood up and rubbed his head.

"YOU CAN'T BE HERE! YOU ARE RUINING EVERYTHING! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?" Hollister yelled.

"Maybe you should have thought of that BEFORE you tried to chop my head off." Jackpot said. "You okay, sweetie?" she addressed towards Spidey.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But I'm gonna need one big ass aspirin when we get home."

"KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!"

"Oh pipe it down, blondie! You are not in condition of making any threats. The only thing you're gonna do is go directly to jail." Jackpot told the adult woman.

"Oh, I have to disagree." the blonde answered as her eyes turned the color yellow.

In just a a short moment the womans skin turned grey and scaly, and two horns grew out from her forehead. The web holding her to the wall bursted as her body grew, muscles swelled up to huge size and breasts disappeared behind large pectorals. The labcoat fell in shreds to the floor as the female monster broke free.

"Allright," Spidey said in a tone of disgust over this apparent female-to-male transformation, "I'm gonna go throw up now."

Menace roared out with her voice full of rage and jumped at the two heroes. The teenagers tried to jump out of the way, but the grey monster knocked them down and slammed them across the room. Jackpot flew right into the wall while Spider-man crashed into a table stacked with chemicals in their jars. The table and all the glass shattered in a million pieces and Spider-man let out a "Sonofabitch!" from the impact.

Jackpot charged towards the monster and jumped, landing a powerful kick with both her heels right in Menace's face and the started punching her in the stomach.

While his girlfriend was fighting the supervillain, Spider-man staggered up on his legs, and as he stood up, his head got very dizzy. Unbeknown to him, under his feet, all the chemicals had mixed together on the floor and was now rising in the air as invisible vapour. The airborne mixture was toxic to a normal person, to a young healthy man with the proportional strenght and stamina of an arachnid on the other hand, it had a strong numbing effect.

"Whoa... feeling a little... woozy-boozy." Spider-man slurred as he wobbled on the spot. He then said "Uhhh everything going dark now..." and fell to the floor where he passed out.

Jackpot turned her head, noticed her boyfriend hitting the ground, and let out a gasp in shock. That one second she lost her guard was all her opponent needed. Menace punched Jackpot in the face, stunning her for a few seconds, and then grabbed on to her. She lifted the small girl up with one hand and pressed her against the wall, then she ripped off a water pipe with her other hand. While a small spray of water shooting out into the room, Menace nailed one end of the pipe to the wall, bent it across Jackpot's torso and arms and shoved the other end of the pipe into the wall on the other side of her, therefore sticking the girl there to the brick wall. When the villain let go of her grip of the heroine, the young redhead hung on the wall like a mounted bass.

Jackpot pulled with all her strenght to break free, but she got nowhere. She started to kick and flail with her legs, but nothing she did could move her from the spot on the wall. She was trapped, and Peter was lying unconscious on the floor while the giant villain let out a long and angry breath through her nose.

Things looked rather dark right now.


	39. Chapter 39

**AN: Again, I apologize for the long delay (I blame writer's block). But now I'm back, I got a brand new computer who works like a dream and everything, so I'll try to better myself now as we get closer and closer to the end.**

* * *

_"That's it. We're boned."_

Mary Jane was running out of ideas. She herself was nailed to the wall, Peter was passed out on the floor after inhaling airborne chemicals, and standing before her stood Menace, flaring her nostrils and taking heavy, mad breaths.

The scaly villain took one step closer to the redhead and raised her clawed hand, ripping off the girls mask.

"HEY!" Jackpot shouted as she tried to resist.

"You!" the monster said and pointed at Jackpot. "Are such an annoying pain in my ass!"

"Really? I've always considered myself cute before annoying." the girl answered sarcasticly while shooting evil eyes at the superpowered villain.

"You are ruining everything! I am changing the course of history here and you are ruining everything like the stupid child you are!"

"I'M STUPID? YOU'RE BREAKING THE LAW! You're robbing banks and you tried to kill me, you crazy freak!"

Menace gave out a condescending snort. "Every genius in history has been called crazy by the people of their own time." Then she turned around and tossed MJ's mask on the table. "But they will see. I'm doing this for the better of mankind, the world will thank me. You know... I always knew that I would end up creating something big, but I didn't knew how, not at the beginning."

"Aw great! Here comes the crazy villains rant." MJ said with an annoyed grunt.

Menace started talking while re-sorting her equipment on the table, standing with her back against MJ. "I had a job at Roxxon a few years back. Not a good job, they never gave me credit for what I did for them back then. But with it I could advance and go places were I could make a difference."

"You know, I'm really not interested."

"Then came my big chanse. They were looking for new people at Oscorp, they were going to start working on a new project that could provide the american government with new supersoldiers. Imagine it, me, working side by side with the great Norman Osborn."

"Oh please." MJ broke in. "Osborn was a nutjob."

Menace turned around really fast and barked at the young girl. "SHUT UP! Osborn was a great man and a genius!"

"Wow, now I know you're crazy. Having the hots for a creep like Norman Osborn... just the idea makes my skin crawl."

"Bah! I never expect you to understand. Yes, Osborn was a genius but he made mistakes. The first one was to hire that hack Octavius instead of me. It was just pure luck that they managed to come up with they did. I can only imagine the feelings that went through Osborn as he transformed for the first time. He must have understood that he had made the greatest discovery in mans history."

"Are you insane or something? Osborn was a murderer! He killed people!"

The giant monster snorted again. "Insignificant ants. No-good losers whose only real meaning in life are to raise a few worthy above their heads. I used to be just like them, but then I seized the opportunity and look at me now! I have turned myself into something more then just a weak human! I am god-like!"

The young girl on the wall was silent as she felt a unnerving feeling spread through her.

"The world as we know it are on the brink of annihilation." Menace continued. "There is a third world war that could go off any day. Mutants grow in greater and greater numbers by the day and half of them want to replace us as the dominant species on this planet. And if not the mutants do it, then certainly some foreign nation will be the one. That's why we have take the leap and take control of mans evolution. That is what THIS is all about!"

The grey monster then held up one bottle of Oz in front of Jackpot's face.

"Osborns second mistake was to loose sight of the main goal. He became obsessed with your sorry ass boyfriend." Menace said while sneaking a glance over at Spider-man lying on the floor. "I promised myself to not make the same mistake. However, just as everything went as I planned, you came along and sparked my curiosity. You can understand how surprised I was when I found traces of Osborn's chemical in your DNA. Tell me, how did it happen? How did you acquire these wondrous powers? No, wait. Don't tell me. It was Octavius, wasn't it?"

The heroines silence and glaring eyes said more then enough for Menace.

"I should've known. That man have never understood the importance of things. He hired a street thug to pour a new untested version of the Oz into the towns water system, probably to use for extortion. But lucky for New York, the serum had no apparent effect. Well, except one. You. Quite spectacular how fate works, am I right?"

"Are you done, you insufferable bastard?"

The villain looked up and down at the young girl hanging of her wall, then she turned around and picked up a device from her desk that looked remarkably alike a small iPad.

"Quite done with you, yes. But before I kill you and use your body to experiment upon, I would like the pleasure of finding out who my biggest obstacle really are."

Menace grabbed on to Jackpots hand, ripped off her the glove and forced the pad against her palm.

"HEY! Stop it!" the girl resisted to no use. The little pad shined a bright light and made a small beep as it scanned the inside of her hand.

"There we go." Menace gloated. "If you are in any kind of database I should have your... Ah, already done."

Menaces personal computer woke up and several small pictures appeared on the screen. The grey monster walked closer and inspected the result.

"Let's see... Mary Jane Watson, Forest Hills, Queens. Go figure it had to be god damn Queens. Sophomore year, Midtown high-" Menace stopped talking mid-sentence when she came to the shocking realization. "YOU'RE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL?"

Despite the dire situation, Jackpot smirked widely. "Oh yeah baby. How does it feel to have had your butt handed to you by a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL!"

Menaces face grew red by anger. She stepped closer to Jackpot and was just about to raise her hand to slap her when a loud sound suddenly broke out from her computer. The fury in Menace's expression turned into fear.

"No! NO!" she screamed when she looked at the new picture on the laptop screen and then in rage she lifted the computer up in the air and threw it across the room.

"Good news?" Jackpot joked over Menace's tantrum.

"SHIELD have you on their watch list." Menace said in a surprisingly calm voice. The calm was actually much more scary then her anger. "I have about one or two minutes before the're here. I'm afraid we're gonna cut our newfound friendship short."

Menace stepped towards Jackpot with her knuckles cracking. MJ took a deep breath. She was afraid of what was going happen now, but she wasn't going to give this sadistic freak the pleasure of seeing that. She was ready to fight to her last breath if she had to. But to think that this was how it was going to end.

Menace raised her right fist in the air, ready to deliver a devastating blow. But then she suddenly took it down again. A evil smile appeared across her face.

"Although... I do think we have time for one last bit of fun." The scaly monstrous woman then turned around and walked towards Spider-man's unconscious body. "Before I kill you, I'm gonna have the pleasure to see you suffer as I break your little lover-boy's neck."

Mary Jane felt her entire body turn stone cold.


	40. Chapter 40

"NO! GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

MJ felt like her heart had stopped beating inside her chest. Time seemed to move slower around her, seconds felt like whole hours. The sound of each step Menace took closer towards Peter echoed like thunder in her ears.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" she screamed with all the power her lungs could summon. "I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU TOUCH HIM!"

Menace smiled a sadistic grin back at her. "Ah. Ain't love a pretty thing?" she mocked.

Mary Jane strained every muscle in her body in one desperate attempt to free herself to save Peter, but no matter how much strength she put in it, she would not move from the spot on the wall.

_"No, MJ. Don't do this."_ her own brain told her inside her head. _"You can't let this happen, don't let her kill Peter. You have to stop her. You can do this, you know you can."_

She started to take faster and deeper breaths. She felt her heart start to race like the engine of a train.

_"You know what's inside you. You know you can do it. You just have to reach inside and grab it! Release it!"_

Adrenaline pumped through her veins. Her heartbeats thumped in her ears like a drum. Her skin was getting wet from sweat.

_"Release it! Set it free!"_

Her fists started to shake. Her nails grew longer and dug into the palms of her hands.

_"RELEASE IT!"_

"GNNNYYYAAAARRRGH!"

Menace, who was kneeling down over Spider-man and reaching out one clawed hand at him, stopped and turned her head. She was just in time to see how the young redheaded girl started to transform before her eyes. The pipes that held MJ stuck to the wall creaked as her torso grew longer and wider and her arms became thicker with stronger muscles. The color that was in her hair seemed to spread across her entire body and as she screamed out loud her teeth noticeably grew out into sharp fangs.

After struggling a hopeless fight to keep the growing woman on the wall the metal pipes finally gave in and broke off, flying across the room. The half-transformed MJ landed on all four and stood up, her changing body now fully visible.

Her eyes changed color from emerald green to a glowing furious yellow and two pointy horns grew out of her forehead. The seams in her suits broke as they could couldn't hold in neither her expanding bosom or her widening hips, and her boots ripped open as the nails on her feet grew into steel-hard claws.

"A second transformation..." Menace gasped. "No, it's not possible..."

The change was over in only a second. The 5'6" petite girl had grown into a nearly seven foot demon-looking she-monster. Her curvy athletic body was covered in short red hair, her nails were like black knifes and the horns on her head were each almost eight inches long. Her face still looked like itself behind that thin layer of fur, only her eyes glowed like two yellow lights and behind those pouty lips she bared two rows of fangs like a vicious predator.

"Get! Away! From him!" the she-devil growled loudly.

Then, without warning, the red monster pounced the grey one. MJ's new form let her use strength that was equal to Menace, and speed that far surpassed hers. Menace had no chance to defend herself from the attack.

The transformed girl wrestled her scaly nemesis across the floor, pushing her towards a safe distance from the unconscious teenage boy. Mary Jane didn't think, she just acted. She had never felt like this before, so powerful, so free. Even though the massive flush of adrenaline made the whole world around her go blurry, there was a feeling of clearness within her. A tranquility that comes to you when you go on autopilot, when you set your inner beast free.

And the wrath of MJ's inner beast was great. She lashed out with all her claws and punched with her fists and kicked with her feet. She then reached out one relatively slim but very strong arm and pulled Menace closer to her and then bit her in the shoulder. She buried her sharp teeth into Menace's flesh, not even her thick scales could protect her from MJ's fangs. Feeling the iron taste in her mouth, MJ spat out Menace's orange blood and slashed with both her clawed hands across her stunned opponents chest. Then she headbutted her right in the face, breaking the scaly woman's nose, and delivered a devastating uppercut. Menace had no time to defend herself against the raging girl, she was being beaten bloody, and the one single weak punch Menace managed to land only made MJ flinch.

As the two transformed humans were engaged in the one-sided fight, water from the broken pipes had made a large puddle on the floor, and that puddle had now reach the face of Spider-man on the floor. As the fumes had dissolved and the cold water made his face and suit wet, he started to wake up from his chemically induced slumber.

"No, Aunt May... I don't wanna go to school today..." he mumbled as he slowly regained consciousness. "Oh man... What happen'd? My face's all numb."

Spidey was jerked out of his groggy condition by a loud animal-like roar. And he knew the voice that made it. Peter looked up and could not believe his eyes. He saw Menace getting her ass kicked by a large red voluptuous figure. And even though that figure was much different from when he seen it several months ago in the abandoned Oscorp facility, he recognized it far to well.

Mary Jane knee-kicked Menace in her stomach and then landed one last haymaker on the right side of the helpless monster's head. The grey villain fell down to the left and passed out from blood loss and the damage from the punishment she just had taken. She landed on the floor with a loud thud and then started to shrink down to her human size. Meanwhile MJ stood over her and breathed through her nostrils, the fury in her slowly subsided, but her transformed body remained the same.

"MJ...? Is... Is that really you?"

MJ turned around. She saw Peter dragging himself up on his legs, removing his mask and slowly moving toward her. She moved closer towards him, half-naked in her torn suit, till they where standing right in front of each other. She got down on her knees, yet she was still much taller then him.

"MJ... Can you hear me?" Peter asked nervously. "Are you in there somewhere?"

Mary Jane looked down at Peter and she felt her eyes become flooded with tears. She reached out and pulled Peter into her arms and he gave out a small shriek of surprise. MJ hugged Peter tight and hard against her chest, she did not wanted to let go of him, and she started to sob loudly, grateful that he was unharmed. However, as MJ was now so much taller then Peter, she ended up pressing him right into the large soft amount of flesh that was her breasts. She actually pressed him so hard into them that he couldn't breathe.

"MJ...! Air...!" he gasped. Although there was a small part of his brain, probably the male part, that thought _"Oh well. There's worse ways to go out."_

After a short moment, MJ finally pulled Peter out of the red and vast valley that was her cleavage, and he made a huge gasp for air. After a moment of catching his breath, Peter looked back up at his girlfriend's face. She smiled back at him, her eyes full of tears. Pete reached out his hand and placed it on MJ's cheek. It was her. He recognized the softness of her face that he had felt so many times before, that nose was her nose, and he would recognize those eyes no matter what color there were. It was her face.

MJ placed her own hand on over his, and then she slowly started to change. The red fur and the horns disappeared into her skin, her body shrank down to her normal size and all the sudden she was down sitting face to face with Peter, wearing the tattered pieces of her suit. The transformation reverted just as fast as it came.

"Did that... really happened?" she asked with a tired voice. A small bead of sweat moved slowly down her forehead.

"Yeah. Yeah, it really did." Peter answered as he cleared some wet strands of red hair from her face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... You?"

"I'm okay now. How do you feel?"

"Tired. Can we go home?"

"Yeah, let's do that." He then turned his head toward Lily Hollister who lied unconscious on the floor. "She's not dead is she?"

"No. I just knocked her out." MJ ensured. "I was in control the whole time, it was incredible."

"Good. Then I'll just web her down and we'll call the police before she wakes up."

He got up on his legs again and covered the blonde villain in webbing, making sure that she was really not able to go anywhere this time. He turned back to Mary Jane just as she tried to stand up. Her legs gave way and she fell into Peter's arms.

"Whoopsy daisy there."

"Whoa, thanks for the save Tiger."

"Here, let me help you with that." Peter then reached one arm underneath MJ and hoisted her up in his arms.

"I'm fine, I can walk myself, really." MJ persisted, although that smile on her face revealed how much she actually enjoyed it. She put her hands on Peter's chest and rested her head on his shoulder.

Carrying Mary Jane in one arm Peter picked up their stuff with his other hand and made it towards the main door.

"Hey..." a tired MJ said.

"What?"

"I saved you." she point out and tapped him on his nose with her index finger. "I totally saved you."

"Yeah, I guess you did. Thank you." Peter smiled at her.

"Guess that makes us even." MJ joked.

"Nah, not really. I have to save YOU like every fifteen seconds."

With MJ still in one arm, Peter gently bent down and grabbed the handle to the door and lifted it up over their heads, just like he did back home with the garage, breaking the lock in the same time. As the large entry opened up, the two heroes' eyes were blinded by a sudden bright light.


	41. Chapter 41

MJ shielded her eyes with her hands and Peter squinted while pulling down his mask over his face.

"Ow! Blinding people much?" MJ shouted out to whoever was pointing the dazzling light at them.

"Sorry about that." a familiar voice told them. "O'Brien, point that somewhere else!"

The light moved to the right and soon both Peter and Mary Jane could see again, and they noticed that they were surrounded by a small army. A large NYPD SWAT team, led by police captain Frank Quaid, stood next to a team of SHIELD field agents, headed by special agent Sharon Carter, all of them heavily armed. Next to them stood the entire Fantastic Four, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch fully ablaze and The Thing towering behind them. And next to the FF stood several members of the Ultimates; Captain America, Iron Man fully dressed in his armor, Thor resting his mighty hammer against his shoulder and Wasp buzzing around their heads.

MJ quickly snatched her mask from Peter's hand and placed it over her face, luckily all the people had been to far away to get a good look of her face. "I'm so not dressed for this..." she whispered in Peter's ear after noticing the other heroes.

Spidey understood what his girlfriend was talking about. "Can we get a coat or something over here?" he called out.

"Got it." Agent Carter replied and took off her trench coat, revealing a black catsuit equipped with belts, gun holsters and and a high-tech jet pack. As Spider-man put down Jackpot on the ground she placed her coat over the young girls shoulders to cover her half-exposed body and tattered suit.

The Human Torch hovered a little closer towards his two friends.

"Nice outfit Red. They do say torn is the new black." he kid.

"Yeah, really funny Johnny." Jackpot responded. "We almost died in there."

"I... I didn't mean... I mean... Ah damn."

"Smooth mouth there, Matchstick." Ben Grimm chuckled.

Spider-man looked out over all the crowd in front of them. "What are you all doing here?" he asked.

"These guys used some old-style police work to track down Menace to this building." agent Carter answered him, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at the Police SWAT's. "We on the other hand tracked down his genetic signal with our satellite, and when we had his location we decided to give these guys a call." She pointed towards the Ultimates.

"You can guess how surprised we were when we bumped into each other. We decided to watch you with the heat cameras till it looked like you needed help." Captain Quaid filled in.

"Well you could have acted a little sooner." Jackpot told him, remembering what a close call it had been just a few minutes ago.

"We were about to but then these four showed up and nearly woke up the whole neighborhood."

Mister Fantastic stepped in. "Yes, sorry about that. But it did seemed like a emergency." he said. "After Johnny had awoken us, I traced your phone call back to this location."

"Yeah, I couldn't wait to kick the ass of the one guy in this town that's more ugly then old Brickface here." the Human Torch cracked.

"Imma standing right behind ya you little yuts!"

"Hate to break it to you," Spidey told, "but Menace is a woman. And she's lying tied up in there. All for you to pick up and send away off to the slammer."

Agent Carter was not late to give out her order. "Alpha team and Beta team, get in there now! Secure the target!"

As the SHIELD agents dashed in to secure the building, all the superpowered heroes circled around Jackpot and Spider-man and engaged in friendly conversation. The only one who did not join in was Captain America who seemed more interesting talking with the police men then with the teenage heroes.

"Wait, you're telling me that thing is actually a chick? Man, that is just wrong." Johnny Storm expressed while he and Ben started chatting with Spidey.

The Invisible Woman placed her index finger and thumb around MJ's eye and forced her eyelid open, checking the size of her pupil for signs of concussion.

"How do you feel MJ?" she asked while placing her hand on MJ's forehead, using her real name as they were surrounded by trusted friends and out of hearing reach from the police officers.

"I'm, I'm fine... Really." MJ answered, although she was feeling rather uncomfortable.

Iron Man stepped closer and opened up his helmet, revealing the mustachioed face of inventor and multi-millionaire Tony Stark. "Wait a minute. I know you, don't I? You interviewed me some months back, when the Hydra attacked, right?" he said.

"Um, maybe... Yeah, yes I did."

"Wow. So you're Spidey's girlfriend AND a superhero too? Crazy world huh?"

"Yeah, I guess it is."

Thor patted Jackpot's shoulder with one giant hand, almost making her crumble under his strength. "Aye, it's impressive that you took down that ogre by yourself. Such a small frame, yet you have the spirit and courage of a valkyrie."

"Thanks... I'm not sure what that means, but thanks anyway."

"You know, I could give you some tips on some stretchy fabrics that don't tear that easy." Wasp said, fluttering around MJ's head. "They're expensive, but worth it."

"Guys, guys!" MJ interrupted. "I appreciate the thought, but I'm really tired and I would like to get home and get some sleep."

"Oh no you don't." Susan Storm determined. "Not before you have got a real check-up at the Baxter Building first."

"I am afraid you're going to have to come with us, MJ." Reed Richard reinforced his girlfriends order.

As all the heroes were busy conversing, agent Carter noticed that a small red light had gone off on her wrist-borne communicator.

"That can't be good." She then spoke into the device; "Come in HQ. HQ this is Agent Carter, respond." She swore as she did not get any respond. "Alpha team, have you secured the target."

"Negative ma'am, we've been unable to locate the target. Put we did found a secret passage out of the building." the radio responded.

"Then get in there and chase her down! She can't have gone far."

Suddenly, Spider-man jerked up like he just got an electric shock.

"We gotta get get those people out of there!" he shouted. "Something's about to happen! Something bad!"

Jackpot was the only one who understood why Spider-man acted like he just did. She recognized that tone in his voice, that was the tone he used when his spider-sense was shouting like crazy inside his head.

"Listen to him! We have to get out of here!"

Carter hesitated only a second. "Alpha and Beta team! Delay that order! Get your asses back out here! NOW!"

Quaid and Carter ordered their troops to move as quickly and far from the building as they could while all the heroes ran across the street to seek cover. All but Spider-man.

"Peter what are you doing? Come on!" Jackpot urged him and pulled him by his sleeve.

"There still agents in there." he answered, his spider-sense screaming louder and louder in his head. He saw the twelve agents come running out of the building, just as a giant fireball erupted behind them. He shot out twelve web-lines, catching each one of them before the fire caught up with them and yanked all twelve of them at the same time out of harms way. As the building exploded and debris and fire flew across the area, he turned around and wrapped his arms around Jackpot and forced her down on the ground, covering her body with his own. The whole thing took no longer then a second.

As the smoke cleared, MJ looked up and saw how the back of Peter's suit was scorched, she could see large patches of the spandex been burned off and exposing nasty burns. He had taken the full blown of the fire for her.

"Oh my God! Peter, your back!"

"I'm fine." he said with a weak smile, trying really hard to not show the pain. "It's... it's just a flesh wound."

"Don't joke about it!" she shouted and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tight to her. "Don't ever do that again!"

"As long as you're okay... I don't care what happens to me." he said, now trying even harder to not show how much pain he was in when MJ hugged him. This was a hundred times worse then a beach sunburn.

The other heroes ran back to the two to help. The SHIELD agents were busy helping their colleagues up on their feet, they were fine but a bit bruised. Most of them wasn't even sure what just had happen.

"Well that was dangerous and explody." said Johnny.

"We need to get you to the Baxter building right now and get that patched up." Mister Fantastic urged. Peter, on the other hand, seemed not to care at all.

"You don't think she blew herself up, do you?"

"Doubt it." Agent Carter gave her answer. "We're never that lucky, now she just blew up all the evidence. I'm sure she'll show up eventually. All teams, look alive! We need to patch this up and head back to HQ immediately! You Ultimates are coming with us!"

"Maybe we should get outta here." The Thing pointed out to his comrades. "Let the experts handle this."

"I agree," Mister Fantastic and the rest of his team led the two teenage away from the burning skeleton of the building. "We parked the Fantasicar just around the corner."

As they rounded the corner, MJ carefully led the injured Peter, holding her arm around his.

"So... Are we even now?"

"As long as you promise we don't have to do this again, whatever you say."

* * *

Vincent Gonzales sat in the corner of his cell, his mouth covered by the plastic muzzle and still chained to the floor. He was in a dream-like state even though he was awake. His mutated body was by now constantly showering his brain with strange substances to feed his addiction. The regular light had since several minutes ago chance into a more dusky emergency light.

Suddenly there was a low boom coming from behind the room's door. Then another, louder one. Then another one that was loud enough to catch at least some of the OZ-mutated man's attention. Then, something broke through the large steel door like a sword piercing through a human torso. A large metal snake were joined by its sisters, some of them stained by human blood, and pried the door open. And enter did Doctor Octopus.

"Vinny." the evil doctor said with a sadistic smile on his face. "Have you done something with your hair?"

Slowly and groggily, Gonzales got up on his legs and tried to free himself of his shackles, to no use. Octavius reached out one tentacle that ripped Gonzales' handcuffs off the floor and then slammed him across the face. He fell to the floor and laid there, seemingly unaware what happened to him. Octavius' arms lifted the mutated man up in the air before him.

"I am going to make this short, Vinny. I want to know who bought my serum from you and I want to know where I can find them."

Vincent did not answer, he just gargled and stared out into the air, his limbs hanging from his body. Doctor Octopus looked at him for a short moment while thoughtfully rubbing his chin, then he made one tentacle take the shape of one long, thin spear. He jammed the spear right into Gonzales' shoulder. But Gonzales just gave out a low moan then continued to stare straight out in the empty space.

"Interesting. Seems like we have to do this the hard way then."

One metal arm moved very close to Gonzales' ear, and a tiny piece of metal, not longer then an inch or thicker then a sewing needle. The diminutive object crawled inside the ear and disappeared.

"Let's play _Operation_, shall we? Buzz if I'm doing it wrong."

Octavius released his victim on the floor. At first he just sat there, but then he screamed out in utter pain, twitched around on the floor and clutched his hands around his head.

"AAAAGH! IT HURTS! GAWD! MAKE IT STOP!"

"That would be the pleasure center of your brain being scrapped off from the inside." the evil doctor informed him. "If I'm not doing it wrong, you will never be able to get high again. If I am, well, you should be glad if that's your only problem."

"AH GAWD! IT HURTS, IT HURTS!"

One metal tentacle snaked itself around the mutated junkies waist and lifted him up in the air, face to face with Doctor Octopus.

"Again; I want the name of your employer and where I can find him."

Gonzales continued to scream in pain, blood now dripping out of both his ears and tears flowing from his different colored eyes.

"Come on now, Vincent. If you don't answer I'll make this little experience look like Sunday in church! Give me a name!"

"H-Hollister..." Gonzales finally managed to whimper. "Her name is Hollister..."

Octavius paused. "Doctor Lillian Hollister?"

"Y-yes... She has... set up a lab... in my old... hideout in Brooklyn..."

The doctor dropped his torture victim to the floor, and one tiny needle crawled out of the mutates ear, covered in blood and brain. It moved around a bit before it went limp and laid dead on the floor. Doctor Octopus turned around and walked toward the same door he had came in through.

"Thank you very much Vinny." He looked back at Gonzales, his smile now a mile wide. "It has been nice working with you."

Doctor Octopus left the poor man behind him, twitching and moaning from the pain, and walked down the hall, listening to the sounds of gun shots and screams in the building around him, his evil smile revealing his amusement.

* * *

MJ stepped out from behind the curtain, now wearing the hospital-like gown with the monogrammed F4 on the chest.

"Where did you wanted me you said?" she asked.

"Right beneath the power press, thank you."

MJ looked at the titanic machine before her. It looked like a huge robotic pillar was coming down from the roof and held a huge metallic weight ten feet above the floor.

"This has to be the biggest paper weight on earth." MJ joked as she stepped up on the platform underneath the press. "Now what?"

Reed looked up from the monitor. "Just hold your hands above your head. I will lower the press and when you can reach it, try to push it up as hard as you can. The machine should then automatically calibrate your exact strength-level. I'm sorry we can't use the other device we used earlier, but Ben broke that one."

"Ain't mah fault you build such fragile things." Ben Grimm shouted from across the room. He and Johnny had occupying themselves with a game of Rock-paper-scissors during the whole medical test. "What the hell is that?

"It's a flaming paper. Beats everything."

"Oh yeah? Does it beat a rock-fist?" He then shook right his fist threateningly at his smaller playmate.

"Okay okay, best twenty-five out of forty-eight."

The doors switched open and Susan and Peter walked in. Peter was shirtless and his torso was wrapped in bandages.

"Peter are you okay?" MJ asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What are you doing?"

"You are in perfect time for the strength test." Reed pointed out to the two. "Okay, let's fire it up."

As the machine powered up, MJ felt the press slowly coming down on her. She pressed her hands onto the weight above her and pressed up as hard as she could. The press seemed to increase in weight until it stopped at a weight that was heavy for her but not so much that she couldn't keep her arms straight above her head.

"That's great MJ, hold it there." Reed called out. "Let's see, it stopped at 6.5 metric tonnes. 14300 pounds. That is almost twice the number from our last test."

"I knew I was stronger then that." MJ said delightfully confident.

"How can she be so much stronger now?" Peter asked.

"Well, I believe it's her body that has become better adapted to the OZ-serum. Now her DNA have fully embraced the transformation."

"We can test you too if you want, Peter. There's the possibility that you grown stronger too since the first time." Sue said.

"No thanks, I'm good."

"You're just scared your girlfriend's gonna be stronger then you." Johnny joked.

"Shut up."

Reed looked up from the monitor at MJ. "Mary Jane, could you, if it's okay with you, try to... activate your OZ-form?"

"Um, I'll try."

MJ closed her eyes. She tried to remember how she did not even an hour ago. She recalled the image of Menace standing over Peter's body, she took quicker breaths and tried to get her pulse up. She remembered all the emotions she felt, anger, fear, panic. Her heart beat faster and faster and soon the press felt lighter above her. When she opened her eyes, the room was a little bit smaller then she remembered. She heard Johnny and Ben cry out in awe.

"Holy cow!"

"Sweet Aunt Petunia on a cracker!"

MJ looked down on her body. It was now covered in red fur, and the gown she was wearing stretched to it's limits around her expanded curves. This time, the transformation had gone much easier. It was just like opening a cabinet and simply take out what was already inside.

"Wow." Reed marveled. "Her strength has almost quadrupled. Look Sue, it topped at 25 tonnes."

"That IS impressive."

MJ smiled to herself.

Peter walked closer to the platform to take a closer look at his girlfriend. He gazed at her with awe and curiosity.

"You can let go now, MJ. We have what we needed." Reed told MJ, and she complied.

As she stepped down from the platform, she noticed how much Peter was looking at her.

"Do I... do I really look that horrible?" she asked while shyly turning her head away.

"No, no not at all." Peter comforted her.

"It's a lot better then last time she did that here." the Human Torch remarked.

"You.. don't think I'm hideous?"

"No I don't. You look beautiful, you look just like you. Beneath all that fur I see the same face that I fell in love with. The same face that I want to marry one day."

"AWWWWWW!" came from Ben and Johhny.

"SHUT UP!" Peter and MJ barked back at them.

MJ then turned back to Peter, bent down and gave him a kiss. Only that now her lips were so large that they covered Peter's entire mouth. It made them both giggle at each other.

"Perhaps you should try to turning back now MJ." Susan said. "I imagine this transformation putting quite the strain on your body."

MJ closed her eyes again, only this time, it was not that simple. She wasn't really sure how she turned back. Each time it had happened by itself. She concentrated and thought about how she felt when she had beaten Menace and discovered that Peter was unharmed, yet she felt no difference. Then an image popped up in her head. She remembered her and Peter's first kiss, the feeling of their lips meeting for the first time. A serenity spread through her body and her pulse started to slow down to normal. When she opened her eyes again it looked like Peter was growing taller, when it really was MJ that was shrinking.

When she had turned back to normal, MJ noticed that she was feeling rather normal, not exhausted or weak like the last times. The only bad thing was that the stretched gown now was hanging on her small body like a circus tent.

Reed Richard cleaned his glasses and walked down next to MJ and Pete.

"I think we have all that we needed. You seem to beginning to learn how to control your transformations, and you're showing a perfect bill of health. You are free to go home now."

"Yeah, it's about time we get home for some shut-eye." Peter said.

"I'm gonna go get dressed." MJ told. "I just... I just want to say thank you. To all of you."

"You don't need to thank us." Susan told her.

"Yes I do."

"Without you guys... well, stuff would had been a lot harder for us." Peter joined MJ.

Mary Jane walked up to Johnny and wrapped her arms around him. "Thanks Johhny. Really."

"Don't mention it, MJ. We're friends remember?"

After letting go of Johnny, Mary Jane gave Ben Grimm a hug too. Or at least gave a hug to his waist since that was just as far up she could reach.

"Aw jeez. If ah could I'd blush."

After Mary Jane and Pete gave their gratitude to Reed and Susan, The Invisible Woman told her brother and friend; "Johnny. Ben. Could you give them a ride home?"

"Sure. Not like ah need sleep anyway." Ben shrugged.

"I call shutgun!" Johhny shouted.

MJ and Peter looked at each other and smiled. They sure had some peculiar friends, but in one way, that was the best kind.


	42. Chapter 42

It was late Sunday evening and the sun had already set. Most people were at home, resting up before the working week to come, or curing themselves of the hangover they got after yesterday's late night. However, inside one particular luxury penthouse on top of a giant skyscraper in the wealthier part of the city, the party had just started. All the lights were on, the music was raging loud and the drinks were flowing. The number of people attending was however rather few. One above middle-age man, with the jacket of his suit thrown to the floor and his tie all untied, was busy smoking on his cigar and watching as the other guests, four young and attractive women who had been paid good money to be there were dancing sensually in front of him. As the music stopped, the man, who was also the host, stood up and clapped his hands.

The man put his cigar out in his glass of scotch and praised the girls for their performance, after which he urged them to follow him to his car outside and join him at a gentlemen's club he was a frequent visitor at. The good host led the women out of the room and turned off the light, unknowing that a pair of eyes was watching them from the outside.

After all the people had left and the penthouse looked seemingly deserted, the owner of those two eyes made its move. Stepping out of its hiding place on the roof of the skyscraper across the street, the shadowy figure picked up a rifle looking device and shot out a rope across the empty air between the two buildings. The magnetic tip of the rope stuck onto the wall of the penthouse and the shadow then attached the rifle to the wall behind it, and after quickly checking that the rope was correctly taut, it slide down the rope with incredible grace and skill. The shadow landed gracefully on its feet in the expensive planted garden outside the penthouse, and then walked up towards the extra-wide glass door. It picked up a small lock pick and started to jimmy up the lock. As the door opened up, the shadow stepped inside the large living room and looked around. There was no alarm or kind of detector inside the room, despite the fact that it was filled with expensive furniture and paintings. The owner had clearly not thought that someone could enter the building without going through the main door. The shadow scanned the quarter with its eyes until its gaze fell upon a particular large painting hanging on the wall.

One gentle and experienced hand took a careful grip of the frame, and the painting open up like a door and uncovered a large and highly modern safe. In the middle of the safe door there was a small electronic key-card lock and a small red light. The shadow smiled to itself and picked up another device from the bag in its belt. It looked like a completely white credit card with no details but a magnetic stripe. The shadow figure gently placed the card inside the lock's slot and then waited. The red light then turned green and there was the sound of a click as the strongbox unlocked itself. The shadow smiled again.

With the safe now fully open, the shadow eyed the inside of it. There was a small stack of high-value bills and a file of papers. The burglar reached inside and pulled out the file, ignoring the stack of money. It quickly read through the papers and then placed the file inside its bag. Just before the shadow was about to turn around it noticed a small glitter from inside the safe. A small diamond, the size of a dice, had caught the moonlight. The burglar smiled again and after inspecting it, swiftly placed the tiny jewel inside the bag. A small bonus for all the hard work.

Closing the safe and placing the painting back as it was, the shadow walked out of the room, leaving it just as it was before it came. The shadow smiled confidently as it closed the glass door behind it and pulled the rope loose from the wall, reeling it in to make its exit from the building.

"Ahem."

The shadow stopped as it heard a girl's voice coming from behind it.

"A little too late to be sightseeing rooftops, don't you think?"

Jackpot jumped down from the penthouses roof and stood a few good feet from the burglar, seeing only its back.

"Turn around, mister." the young heroine ordered.

The shadow did, and it was an incredible sight. The cat burglar was a young and beautiful woman with long, snow-white hair and a pair of full, pouty lips. She wore a black spandex cat suit that hugged tightly to her slender form, showing every curve on her body and revealing an amount of cleavage that put even Jackpot's costume to a shame. She had a small bag attached to her belt and on her head she wore a black mask with orange cat-like goggles, they even had a pair of cat ears sticking out from beneath the woman's white mane.

Jackpot was taken by complete surprise by the female burglar's appearance. "Whoa... What stripper joint did you run away from?"

The black cat-woman smirked and crossed her arms in smug confidence. "Isn't it a little past your bedtime, missy?" she responded.

"Good one. But seriously, Miss Obviously Surgically Enhanced. I can't have you robbing some guys place on my shift."

"Yes, but it's not like it was a good guys place." the voluptuous cat burglar defended herself. "This guy has embezzled millions from his shareholders and put hundreds of families on the street. I'm just here to get the evidence out in the open."

"Yeah, you can tell that to the judge." the redheaded girl in the green costume said, stepping closer to the cat burglar. "Hey, wait a minute… I know who you are. You're that Black Cat burglar they talked about on the news a while back"

"EX-burglar." the Black Cat pointed out with pride. "I help people now."

"By breaking into people's house? Not much of a change, is it?"

"I watch news too; you are the Spider's new fling aren't you?"

Now Jackpot has had enough of this woman. She had hit a nerve, and MJ did not like when people hit her nerves. "Enough with the small talk. I'm afraid I am going to take you in now, Kitty."

"You can try." Black Cat said with a shrug and turned around.

"Hey don't walk away from me!" Jackpot stepped even closer to the female burglar and grabbed her by the shoulder.

Jackpot felt the Black Cat putting her hand over her own, and before she know it, the red-haired girl made a flip through the air and landed on her back, confused over what just happened while the Black Cat quickly walked towards the rope hanging across the buildings.

"Oh no you don't!" Jackpot shouted as she got back up on her feet and jumped at the cat burglar like a powerful spring.

Black Cat just bent down, as if she was picking up a penny, and Jackpot flew over her, missing the easiest target in the world.

MJ flew over the side of the building and managed just in time to grab a hold of the edge with her hand before she plunged towards her doom.

_"I missed! How could I've miss? She was three feet from me!"_ she thought as she dangled hundreds of feet up in the air.

Then Jackpot heard how the Black Cat wheeled in the rope and then fired it back out into the air, hitting a building lower than the one they were standing on. After she attached the rifle to the roof, the burglar pulled out a small wheel-like device that she attached to the rope and then folded out two handles on the wheel, creating a zip line. Jackpot then sees how Black Cat slides down the inclined cable with great speed.

In the quarter of a second, Jackpot let go of the edge and kicked her legs out from the wall of the building with all her might, making herself fly towards the black-clad woman going down the rope. She caught up with her in the middle of the air and wrapped her arms around the Black Cat's waist, making them both go down the rope at an even faster speed.

"NO!" the Black Cat shouted. "Get off! It won't hold us both!"

The rope was able to hold up the weight of both the two girls, but not the trolley. The handle bars broke apart and the two girls were sent falling downwards, the speed making them fall in an angle towards the building, straight into a window.

They crashed through the glass and landed on top of each other, but also to their great surprise on something soft. As both Jackpot and Black Cat looked up they saw that they were in a young boy's room. The wall was covered of attractive women wearing different kind of superhero-themed costumes and the shelves had all kinds of action figures and toys stacked in a good and well-sorted manner. And the owner of said things was sitting in the other end of the bed. He was a young man, not any older then MJ herself, and for just having two strangers just appear in front of him, he seemed more pleasantly surprised than frightened. The young man took a look at the two beautiful women that had appeared in his bed, and he shouted:

"YES! Thank you God!"

"Get off me!" the Black Cat yelled and pushed Jackpot off her and down onto the floor. The white-haired woman jumped off the bed, ran out of the room and disappeared down the hall. Jackpot got up on her feet and quickly ran after her.

"Hey-" the kid called out after her.

"Oh get a girlfriend!" Jackpot yelled back to him.

She ran down the hall and passed the kid's parents who peeked out from their own bedroom.

"Sorry ma'am. Sorry sir." Jackpot said as she ran past them and out the door after the Black Cat. She heard how the two parents started to yell at their son behind her.

"GEOFFREY! CARE TO EXPLAIN THIS?"

Jackpot followed the sound of Black Cat's steps up the stairwells and heard how she smashed through the door that led to the roof. Jackpot comes through the door just in time to see the cat burglar jump over the edge down to the scaffold on the side of the building. She followed her quickly and landed with both her feet on the top board of the structure, and her feet smashed through the wooden boards and she was stuck from her knees and down.

"GAH! What the hell?"

MJ hoisted herself up from the hole and continued to climb down the scaffoldings after the Black Cat who now had a good head start. She jumped straight out in the air, planning to grab the tube of the scaffolding to make a quick 90 degrees turn downward, but as she grabbed the metal tube with her hand the thing broke off in her hand, sending her flying straight out and into the wall of the other building. She crashed into the wall with a big "Ooof!". The impact stunned her for a second and she fell down to the ground. She would have been badly hurt by the fall unless she hadn't landed in a large pile of garbage bags.

_"Gee, saved by garbage. Thanks New York."_ she thought as she struggled to get back on her feet and saw the Black Cat just running past a corner.

When she finally had got back up and past the corner she saw her target jump over a high steel fence. They were now close to the Hudson River and the Black Cat had just snuck into a marina. Jackpot felt confident as she jumped over the fence and followed the black-clad woman down a long wooden pier. The Black Cat was running right into a dead end.

"Here kitty-kitty-kitty." she called to the cat burglar, just a second before her left foot went right through the pier. "AGAIN? What the hell is wrong with me today?". But when she pulled her foot up from the hole in the wood she couldn't help but to smile to herself.

"I got her now. The only way for her to escape would be if she finds a boat with the keys still in, and there's no way she is... that... lucky...?"

Her words trailed off as she heard the ignition of an engine, and then saw how the Black Cat removed the moorings of a small motorboat. As she threw the rope away, the cat burglar grabbed the steering wheel of the boat and put the throttle on fast forward, moving away from pier with great speed. Jackpot gave out an angry grunt of frustration and started run down the pier as fast as her legs could move her. For that one second it took her to move closer the end, she did the calculation in her head and as she reached the end of the pier she jumped. Flying through the air, she was happy to find that her calculations were right on and she landed on her feet upon the stern of the motorboat. The boat made a little bounce in the water and the Black Cat turned around and looked at her pursuer in shocked surprise.

"End of the line, Pussycat. It's been fun but- WHOA!"

Jackpot lost her footing on the wet boat and fell backwards into the water. When she got her head up over the surface and spitted out a large amount of water, she saw the Black Cat punch the throttle and speed off over the Hudson. The voluptuous cat burglar turned around one last time and in gloat blew Jackpot a kiss before she disappeared over the dark horizon.

Feeling angry to the point of exploding, Jackpot began to swim to the nearest land, muttering and swearing as she did.

"Stupid slippery boat, stupid slippery boots. Stupid Catwoman rip-off."

When she finally got back up on dry land, she was disgusted by how wet and filthy she was.

"Eeeewww! This water isn't water. It's soup. It's slime soup!" she said as she removed what she hoped was just wet paper from her shoulder.

_"What is wrong with me today? It's like I have the world's worst bad luck."_ she thought as she wringed out some of the dirty water from her suit. She then pulled something out of her hair, and she screamed and quickly dropped it as she noticed that whatever it was, it was moving. She looked at her wristwatch, and found it to have stopped and the inside of it to be filled with water. The young girl let out another frustrated grunt as she began the journey home, dripping a trail of dirty water behind herself.

"Ugh. There isn't going to be a shower in the world hot enough to make me feel clean again."

* * *

**AN: Wait a minute, this chapter is just meaningless fanservice... Hell yeah! I know many of you have been waiting for this, and now it's finally here. Next time, we move into the conclusion of this story.**


	43. Chapter 43

MJ's luck seemed to turn for the better when she got home as he managed to sneak back into the house just before her mum came home from her evening class. She tossed her suit in her pile of dirty laundry on the floor and ran into the shower before her mother would notice the stench she brought home.

"MJ? Was that you?" the middle-age woman called out from the bottom of the stairs.

"I'M IN THE SHOWER, MOM!" MJ called back from inside the bathroom. She gave out a small sigh of relief as she opened the tap and stepped into the shower. As the hot water hit her skin and washed away all the dirt she felt at ease for the first time all day.

After a long and much needed shower, MJ wrapped a towel around her hair and dressed in her pajamas. As she passed the full-view mirror hanging on her wall, she stopped. She looked at her reflection and then pulled up the sleeve on her arm and flexed her bicep. She smiled at herself, feeling proud over the swell of the muscle on her arm. It was noticeably a little larger then it had been a couple of weeks ago, proving the Fantastic Four's yesterday thesis of her increased strength.

"And all this without doing a single push-up." she smiled.

MJ picked up her glasses and walked down to the kitchen and made herself a big hot cup of masala chai. She used the largest cup in the cabinet; it was actually more like a bowl. Then she picked up a book that she had not had the time to continue reading in a long time and headed for the couch. It was the last night before school started again, and there was no better way she could think of spending it then relaxing on the sofa with a good book and a warm cup of tea.

As she cuddled down underneath the blanket, MJ reached out her hand and turned on the radio that stood on the side table. She opened up the book and put her glasses on her nose, strangely enough her eyesight was the only thing that hadn't improved since she got her powers she thought. While she was reading through the book, the radio program started playing music by the Hispanic singer and dancer Shakira.

_"There's a she-wolf in the closet. Open up and set her free. There's a she-wolf in your closet. Let it out so it can breathe."_

"Been there done that, sister" MJ said to herself with a tiny smirk without looking up from her book. For the first time in several days she finally felt completely relaxed.

While her daughter enjoyed the lazy Sunday evening, Mrs Watson decided to do the laundry. She picked up the laundry basket in the bathroom and walked through the hall to her daughter's room, knowing well that the teenager sometimes forgot clothes on her bed or on the floor. And just as she thought, on the floor of the young girl's room there was a pile of different clothing. The middle-age mother shook her head at the mess before her as she lifted up the entire pile and stuck it down into the basket, planning on sorting out the mess downstairs. With the laundry basket full, Mrs Watson walked down the stairs and past her daughter on the couch, who did not notice her mother coming down from her room with the basket of dirty laundry, down into the basement where they had the washing machine and the dryer.

In the basement, Mrs Watson sat down the basket on the floor and picked up some of her daughters clothes. She sorted out some shirts and socks and tossed them into the machine, and then she picked up one of her daughter's brassieres, the size of which caused her eyes to grow wide as saucers.

"Wow," she thought, "my little girl is really growing up. What do they put in the food these days?"

She put the bra in the washer and then returned to the rest of the dirty laundry. And it was there where she found a garment that she did not recognize. She pulled out a bright green, white and gold spandex outfit from the pile and inspected it, not realizing what it was right away. She thought right away that the strange outfit was familiar, but she could not figure out why, nor could she figure out what her daughter needed this for. Then the horrific realization hit her when she remembered that she had seen the outfit on the television news. So she called out;

"Mary Jane! Get down here NOW!"

Mary Jane looked at the clock hanging on the wall, checking for how long she had been left in peace and quiet. "Ten minutes. That has to be a new record." She then put down her book and got up from the sofa.

"Yes Mom?" she asked when she stepped down the basement stairs.

"Explain this!" MJ's mother ordered and held up the colorful costume for her offspring to see.

MJ was startled. When her mother held up her superhero costume, she was struck mute. This was the very same thing that she had feared from the beginning, how could she have been so sloppy to let this happen?

"I- that's- that's my- its' my school project…" she ineffectively tried to explain herself with stuttering voice.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" MJ's mother yelled and slammed the costume onto the top of the washing machine. Her face was starting to turn red from the anger and she waved a decisive finger at her daughter. "YOU HAVE BEEN LYING TO ME FROM THE START AND I'M DEAD TIRED OF IT! TELL ME THE TRUTH OR GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

Now MJ was shocked. She had never seen her mother like this, and she could tell that she was serious in her threats. So MJ just gave out a sad sigh and surrendered.

"Okay. If you want the truth, that's what you're gonna get. Just… just let me make one phone call first."

"Phone call? Why the hell would I let you…"

"Please mum. Just let me make one call and then I will answer all your questions honestly, I swear."

After giving her daughter a stern look, Mrs Watson gave in. "Fine. But I hope it's a good one."

The two of them walked up the stairs into the living room. MJ unwrapped the towel around her hair and picked up the phone.

"You might want to sit down." she told her mother while she waited for the other end to pick up the phone. After a few tones, a male voice was heard through the handset. MJ was quick to get to the point;

"Hi Tiger. Listen, I'm in big trouble. My mom found my you-know-what in the laundry. Yeah, I know. I think it's time to come clean to her, and I could really use your help here. Yeah she's pretty angry. Could you come over and bring your you-know-what? Thank you. See you later."

Mrs Watson looked at her daughter when she hung up the phone.

"I should have known Peter Parker had something to do with this. Are you doing drugs with him MJ?"

"No, I'm not doing drugs Mom."

"Why does that boy have to come over for you now? Oh my god, you're pregnant aren't you?" Mrs Watson asked her daughter very seriously.

"What? No, no I'm not pregnant! Seriously, why do people keep thinking that? And why would I need the suit if I was pregnant?"

"The suit? Is that what this is? This is the same outfit as that Jackpot-vigilante on the news! Why the hell do you have this?"

MJ gave out another sigh and sat down next to her mother on the sofa.

"Mom, this is a pretty long story. And trust me, after I've told you this, nothing will be the same again."

Now Mrs Watson looked at her daughter with confusion. "MJ, what are you talking about?"

"Well, I guess the best way to tell you is to just say it straight out. Mom, I am…"

DING DONG

The both of them looked at the direction of the front door.

"Huh. That was quick." MJ said, a little amused how every time she was going to reveal her big secret to some loved one, she was interrupted.

"I'll take it. You sit here and really think about what you are going to say, young lady." her mother told her when getting up and walking out into the hall. MJ leaned back in the couch and exhaled a tired breath as she heard her mother open the door ajar.

"Can I help you?" her mother's voice said coming from the hall.

"Is this the Watson's resident?" a female voice asked with a cold and dour tone.

"Yes it is. And who are you?"

Every hair on MJ's neck stood up on end as she recognized the second voice.

"MOM GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!"

* * *

MJ only took a quarter of a second to move from the living room and out to the hall, but during that short moment many things had the time to occur. The wooden door was smashed into hundreds of pieces and scattered all over the room and MJ's mother fell backwards down to the floor with a terrified scream while the monstrous Menace forced herself through the doorway, roaring like a mad lion.

Mary Jane jumped up, bounced of the wall and flied straight towards the grey monster, the towel around her hair dropping down to the floor. With all the strength her legs could achieve in one leap, she smashed right into Menace's chest and forced them both out of the house. They landed on the lawn, MJ straddling over Menace and delivering punch after punch in the mutated woman's face.

"HOW DARE YOU COME TO MY HOUSE? YOU- YOU- YOU EVIL, SADISTIC MONSTER!"

As she continued hitting Menace, tears began to flow down MJ's face. She was so angry and scared for her mother's life that she couldn't even find the words.

"YOU- YOU- YOU HORRIBLE, EVIL, SELFISH LUNATIC! I- I WONT LET YOU HURT MY FAMILY, YOU HEAR ME? I'LL RATHER DIE FIRST!"

Suddenly both of Menace's arms came from nowhere and grabbed MJ's throat, taking a vice-hard grip around her neck.

"That was the back-up plan." Menace growled with her mouth full of blood. "I would've rather killed your loved ones before your eyes, but this will do. I'll kill YOU before HER eyes!"

Menace's grip tightened as she stood up and MJ became unable to breathe. She felt a great pain in her cervical vertebrae as they were slowly being crushed by Menace's monstrous strength, and the lack of air in her brain made her dizzy and unfocused. In panic she tried to kick Menace with her legs but Menace held the teenager at an arm's length, beyond the smaller girls' reach, and the lack of oxygen made MJ's strength drip away. The world started to go black.

"LET GO OF HER!"

For a moment MJ could hear Peter's voice, but why was he yelling at her? Then suddenly there was a loud WHACK and MJ felt how air rushed back into her lungs again. She felt her body hit the ground and she slowly got up on her knees, she rubbed her sore throat and gasped for air. As her vision returned to normal she saw how Menace was fighting her boyfriend on her lawn. Peter was wearing his normal civilian clothes, but he had his web shooters on, and his Spider-man mask peeked out from his pocket.

MJ turned around and saw her mother standing in the leftovers of their doorway with a small cut on her forehead, a single streak of blood running down her face, and crying violently. MJ quickly ran up to her.

"Mom! You need to get out of here!"

"God…! MJ, wha- What's happening…?" Mrs Watson was clearly in shock by the whole occurrence.

"Mom! Listen to me; you need to get somewhere safe!"

"Oh god! Peter Parker is Spider-man!"

MJ turned her head and noticed Peter standing on Menace's shoulders and tying her head and hands together with his webbing while the monster tried to claw herself free, roaring in anger as she did, while also trying to shake the young superhero off her.

"Mom, you need to listen to me!"

"He's SPIDER-MAN! And YOU'RE A MUTANT! Oh GOD…!"

"MOM!" MJ grabbed her mother by the shoulders. "Listen to me! You need run over to May Parker's house right away!"

"May Parker…? What does… why…?"

"Just do it! Tell her to call SHIELD, she has the number. Tell them that the super criminal Menace is here in our yard and that they have to come right now. Stay with Mrs Parker, she know what to do."

"I-I-I don't understand… How… What is…?"

"Just do it, okay. Please."

Mrs Watson stared at her daughter in shock and then nodded her head meekly as she saw the seriousness in her child's eyes. Then she turned around and ran as fast as she could with weak legs towards the Parker's house.

With her mother in a safe distance MJ turned around and charged towards Menace who just had broken free from Peter's web. MJ yelled out in anger as she jumped up and kicked the grey monster in the chest.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU HEAR ME YOU MONSTER?"

"Such great anger in such a tiny body." Menace mocked as she stumbled back and wiped some orange blood off her mouth.

"Hollister, you're DERANGED!" Peter Parker yelled. "What kind of a sick mind does something like this?"

"A mind that has nothing left to lose. You two have cost me everything. I could have become one of the most respected people in the world if it wasn't for you meddling kids."

"And our little dog too." Peter cracked while still sounding completely serious.

"Joke all you want, little child, but tonight is the night that I ruin your lives as you ruined mine."

"We won't let you do that, Hollister." MJ stated firmly. "We'll fight you till our last breath if we have to."

"I know, I'm counting on it. And to be honest, I don't even care if I come out of this alive either. Tonight, my friends, we fight to the bitter end."

* * *

Peter Parker slammed Menace across the face and sent her flying right into the picket fence, smashing it into pieces.

"Hey! That's MY fence!" MJ yelled half-serious.

"Oh… sorry." Peter apologized.

"Seriously, I can't take you anywhere."

Menace quickly got back up on her feet and attacked the two teenagers, roaring and frothing as she did.

"Rrraaarrr!"

She jumped up to Peter and MJ and punched wildly in the air after them. Peter managed to dodge the first blow but was hit by the second one in his stomach while MJ was scratched across the arm by the monster's claws, jumping just out of reach for the wound to not be severe. Menace succeeded to land another punch on Peter, this time right on the side of his head, which disoriented him. Mary Jane jumped up in the air, stepping on Menace's head in the process and grabbed her boyfriend by the hands. She threw him up in the air, out of harm's way while she herself dove back down and punched Menace right on the nose. Menace returned the blow with a sucker punch to her side and MJ grunted as she was forced to land on the ground in search of a better position.

Up in the air Peter regained his direction and aimed both his hands down and shot out a web line onto street light. Like a reversed bungee jump Peter was stopped from continuing going up and instead recoiled downwards. He used the momentum in his fall to swing around the light and slammed right into Menace's back feet first. The mutated woman got the wind knocked out of her and tumbled forward. Peter landed gracefully on the ground, a safe distance from Menace right next to MJ.

Menace looked up then saw that her two teenage foes had pause their attacks and was just standing there, looking at her.

"What's the matter, little children?" the grey monster growled. "Have your tiny little brains finally been struck by fear for your lives?"

"Um, you better look behind you." Peter pointed.

"Oh please, do you really think that I'd fall for that old one?"

Right after finishing that sentence, Menace was hit from behind by something large and metallic. She was pushed down to the ground and dragged across the ground, creating a long trench in the street.

"She should have listened." MJ shrugged, but her and Peter's attention was quickly moved away from Menace as several thuds, like heavy footsteps taking directly out of Jurassic Park, were heard.

A large and menacing figure rose from the shadows and out into the light of the street lamps. Four long snake-like arms, gleaming silver in the moonlight, took heavy and intimidating steps as they carried their master out for everyone to see. The man emerging from the darkness was wearing a orange prisoner jumpsuit and dim sunglasses despite the fact that it was night, and on his face he wore a sadistic and smug smile.

"Peter Parker. And the girlfriend!"


End file.
